Killer Instinct Vs. Survival Instinct
NOT “KILLER INSTINCT” BUT, “SURVIVAL INSTINCT” -
This distinction between the terms “killer instinct” and “survival instinct” are significant in helping to understand, motivate, support and prompt action when fighting is the only choice in preventing disfigurement, disablement and death. Legally and morally it is to ones advantage emotionally to behave with actions one can live with after the defense in assault, despite the severity of the outcome. Some instructors teach a concept called “KILLER INSTINCT”. I believe this ”psychological tool” is not as strong or valuable as understanding “survival instinct” and also, not as strong as the selfless act of ”Protective Instinct”. In the case of “Survival Instinct” and “Protective Instinct”, one may think of them as interchangeable terms for this excerpt. I believe that the efforts devoted to teaching ”killer instinct” is against one’s natural tendencies, is weak and misguided. I believe what humans have is “SURVIVAL INSTINCT’” given to us in birth and genetically wired for problem free operation. Women do not give birth to a child with expectations that their child is a killer, and killing must be untaught. No one expects anyone to kill or murder as a matter of course. Society and families do their best to protect our children from emotional damage in which killing can be learned or imprinted as a viable action or solution. People murder in crime and kill in war with pathology in the former and a belief that stems from the idea that it has become necessary to kill to survive in the later. This act of murdering in crime is a heart and mind gone wrong. Killing in a war does not means we are born killers with killer instinct, it means we have chosen to survive. What we have is “SURVIVAL INSTINCT”. If we were to hold a person’s head under water and try to drown them, they would fight with every cell of their being to avoid death, no training would be necessary to illicit the fight for life response. Nature provided us this powerful drive to live, “survival instinct” and it is genetically fused with our souls. What one has to learn is that, it is OK to allow our “survival instinct”. We must learn that it is justifiable to fight with every cell of our being. We must know when a situation calls for “survival instinct” and how to use the tools necessary to prevent our own demise or that of a loved one. It is when these moral, legal, social lines are obscure and physical ability is separated from instinct, that civilians are injured, disfigured, maimed and killed everyday by criminals. Confused by the fact that we do not have killer instinct, we may not sense that our heads have been placed, figuratively, underwater and therefore, the survival instinct is not triggered. While it is not OK to murder, it is OK to survive. What are your thoughts?
