Mindset – The Zen of the Flip Flop

I’ll pick it apart.

First, invoke names of serious instructors who had real solid informatino to empart:

”
Jeff Cooper taught us the Combat Mindset and all of us in the defensive tactics/training business teach subjects like the Color Code, survival and preparedness…

Then, issue an insult, simple straight forward dismissiveness. It’s always better to have people on the defensive. Get them thinking they are clueless, thoughless, ignorant. This is a pure sale technique:

“As far as I’m concerned these people are displaying a remarkable lack of foresight and preparedness for emergencies. They figure, because they are nice, inoffensive people, nothing bad will happen to them and that’s why, when it does, they have no choice but to die. They have adopted the Zen of the Flip Flop, a careless state of mind.”

With the person momentarily taken aback, slip the biggest flaw in your logic past them:

“If you experience an airplane accident while wearing shorts and shower shoes your chances of getting off the airplane alive are nil. If you somehow manage to get clear of the wreck, your inability to move around or walk to safety without shoes could kill you.”

Never address the illegitimacy of your flawed logic.

What’s more likely to get you killed, the flip flops or the alumnium can falling out of the sky at several hundred miles an hour?

Do what to safety? The whole world is decending on your location! A plane just crashed! Stay there. Everyone is going THERE, right where the plane is! Right where you are. But, oh no, for the sake of an argument you should plan to leave the safest place for you – walking away from the biggest help need beacon on the planet.

Now, quick, throw in a few more legitimate concerns (though HIGLY unlikely) to bolster your weak initial claims, that’s called, “finishing strong.” You can redeem a weak sports performance with a stronger finish. Stagger a guy in the final round and less people recall the beating your took from round 1:

“If you are accosted by bad guys in the airport parking lot, your ability to run away or fight, while wearing floppy sandals, is nil. If you have to move backwards in a hurry with flip flops on your feet you will fall down and if you were maneuvering to save your life your chances of survival are nil. If you happen to be driving a car to the airport and the bottom of your sandal gets caught as you lift your foot to brake you may wreck and you may die.”

You can live your life not fearing the remotest things and be just fine, or become the paranoid nut thoee “WARNING WARNING THIS COULD HAPPEN” make you. You are far more likely to be injured by things you can’t control than those you can.

As to those other arguments such as being accosted in the parking lot… did you mean the one you have to pay to enter and exit, with all the cameras, all the other people coming off the plane or arriving to the airport?

Don’t forget to go back to “givens,” they make your position seem stronger because you are saying reasonable things, sometimes empty, vague truisms, but reasonable. You hope the reasonableness flows back to the silly argumet you made earlier:

“Mindset goes way beyond figuring out how to win a gunfight, it’s really the adopting of a state of mind that insures your survival no matter where you are or what you are doing. Even if it’s not very likely, think about what could go wrong and take prudent, reasonable steps to ensure your safety.”

Also, evoke images of truly stupid people. You don’t want to be like these truly stupid people do you? That’s what you are when you ignore my advise not to wear flip flops:

“Every time I see a news report about boaters caught in a horrible storm, I ask myself why they didn’t take the simple precaution of checking the weather before going out. Same goes for these stories where people get stuck in blizzards in the mountains because they decided to take a drive. If you can’t swim, why not go tubing with friends down a raging river? What could go wrong? And, if you are wandering around in the boonies, especially in bear country, without a suitable firearm you might end up being food.”

Like people of Walmart you are if you wear flip flops.

Finally, petition to the not real bright tuff-guy personae:

The movie “Apocalypse Now” has a great scene that illustrates what I’m trying to get at. A patrol boat is making its way up a jungle river in enemy territory when one of the crew members decides it would be a good idea to go ashore and look for something to add to the meal he is preparing. The men end up being chased back to the boat by a tiger, screaming, crying and shooting. Throwing themselves back on the boat in their panic they cry, ‘Don’t get off the boat! Don’t get off the boat!’ The point here is, if something is likely to endanger you, don’t do it. If there are places you should avoid because they pose a threat to your safety, don’t go there. If you aren’t sure what course of action to take, ask yourself if you should ‘get off the boat’.”

Really- TIGERS?

If you really believe flip flops will be the death of you, I have a titanium umbrella to sell you… you never know when a big chunk of frozen waste might fall off a plane and crush you to death.

Steven,

Ed appears to have based most of his post on Ben Sherwood’s book, The Survivors Club. I you haven’t read it, you might find it interesting as it goes into more depth on these issues.

Mr. Cline;
You wanted to pick apart the article by Ed Head. That is of course why they have an area for comments. It also leaves a space for me to pick apart your comments.
You show a lack of understanding on exactly what Mr. Head is trying to demonstrate. By picking flip flops, an item that everyone is familiar with he has connected with a wider audience than if he tried speaking of combat mindset and color codes alone.
Yet the flip flops do present an obvious target when speaking of mindset and color codes. His example of people wearing them onto airplanes is clear and logical. Just look at any line of people passing through security at an airport. A large portion will be wearing flip flops or some similar, easy to remove and replace type of footware. Rarely will anyone wear a heavy set of hunting boots, it simply is too much of a problem to unlace them, take them off, wait for them to pass through then have to put them back on again. So the flip flops “feel” like a better way to go. Now suppose, just suppose that during the flight some disaster did happen and the plane crashed. Assume a great deal of damage but luckily few deaths. As the plane comes to a stop the panic will start. Everyone will be trying to get to the nearest exit to get out. It is possible or even likely that there could be a fire, either inside the cabin or ourside surrounding the crash. As you try to move through the rubble and debris you will quickly learn why flip flops are such a bad choice. Broken glass, shards of razor sharp metal, fire, and dozens of other feet attempting to flee also. Who do you think is most likely to make it to the exit, and then be able to walk around or even through burning debris to safety? The guy with the hunting boots on, or you, who by this time will be barefoot?
But even this misses the mark. This article was about thinking ahead, planning your trips, making smart choices. It isn’t about flip flops. It is about putting that flashlight in your pocket in broad daylight. Its about the 2nd or 3rd full magazine you carry even when just running to the store. Its about the fire extinguisher on the wall in the kitchen AND the bedroom. It is thinking and planning for things you hope never happen but if they do you will be prepared to save your own life and maybe the lives of others.
I wish you hunting boots in your time of need.