The brain built for protecting us was field tested for millions of years in the wild.  I call it the wild brain, in contrast with the logic brain so many people revere.  The logic brain is plodding and unoriginal.  It is burdened with judgement, slow to accept reality, and spends valuable energy thinking about how things ought to be, used to be, or could be.  The logic brain has strict boundries and laws it wants to obey, but the wild brain obeys nothing, conforms to nothing, answers to nobody, and will do whatever it takes.
Gavin De Becker

? who is gavin de becker? philosopher, psychologist, a logical type brain guy? and the point of his statement is? identifying 2 seperate life styles? growing up in american suburbs or cities? reason for taking martial arts training?

Gavin De Backer is an ex police officer- author of many very well regarded self defense/mindset books, The GIft of Fear ,  Protecting the Gift,  Fear Less  all around the basic principal (Backed up with zillions of statistics) of using your instinct- such as
you are thinking “that person looks edgy- I will cross the street to be farther away” but your conditioning tells you ” that person may think I am rude for crossing the street and be insulted, so i will stay here”  following what you think, not as you are conditioned to do or react…
Fantastic reading, wonderful insight….

P amazon both books at once gift of fear and protecting the gift $18.39 not including shipping. curious to see what barns and noble sell them for.

Did you read them yet Dale ?
What are your thoughts ?

I have had to self correct many times when I started to overide my instinct with polite protocol. It has probably saved my skin more than once.

Things are so much clearer when you reflect on them and are not in the social situation where you are conditioned to respond a certain way.  Many times I have had people ask such outright rude intrusive questions that out of sheer shock I answered, later thinking “Why the heck did I do that ?”  Total conditioning.  A Much more mild example than being attacked ...but the same idea-