From the day you're born, you start dying. You may get a couple of breaks, you may get 50 or even a century, but nobody is immortal-and know this almost from day one.
So why are most people so afraid of death? Let's face it, in the middle of a gun battle nobody is thinking, "Oh, God, I may he wounded in an arm or foot!" You're probably thinking, "If I lose this one I can finally shrug off the IRS (or words to that effect)." You're thinking of two things: winning and dying. Throughout history, achievers and heroes have attained their success from one, two, or all of three things: ability, willpower, and ignorance. Ability is a necessary attribute that speaks for itself, but over and above that, it's a tossup as to whether you win because of willpower or ignorance. The man who keeps on trucking against all odds is probably going to get to the winner's circle sooner or later simply because he won't admit defeat. The "ignorant" person who doesn't know when he's beaten is a totally different kettle of fish. A bumblebee, for example, cannot fly. A physicist can prove that flight is impossible for this creature. The only problem is that bumblebees don't go to school and they don't study physics-so they fly anyway.
The three most dangerous opponents you can ever face are the man who doesn't care whether he lives or dies, the man who doesn't know when he's beaten, and a madman. Nobody ever wants to mess with a lunatic-leastwise not if you have one iota of common sense in your skul1.
Someone who cares not one whit about whether or not his life is about to be snuffed out is usually a religious fanatic or an extremely dedicated soldier (like a samurai warrior or kamikaze pilot). Or his life has reached such desperate straits that he literally has nothing left to lose. You can't bluff him, because he's not listening to what you're say¬ing and even if he does listen he just plain and simply doesn't care. You may be a dog lover, but if Fido is foaming at the mouth, crazy-eyed, and about to rip out your jugular, it's not because he's swallowed a couple of Alka-Seltzers-you have to kill him if you want to survive.
Ignorance of the depth of the sur¬rounding feces pile will always be trou¬ble for the good guy, irrespective of whether it's you or your opponent who's displaying a lack of knowledge of how much trouble is brewing. Obviously, if you become complacent, overconfident, or simply unaware, you're probably going to lose the fight. The same would equally as obviously apply to an opponent who's exhibiting the same traits, but in an enemy in the context of this article we're not dis¬cussing the same traits-we're talking about somebody who doesn't know when he's whipped. Cut off one of his arms, he punches you with the other. Chop off his remaining arm and he kicks you. He doesn't know when to quit because he doesn't understand that he's supposedly already beaten. So he becomes a flying bumblebee, and you're the puzzled physicist-and in a lot of trouble.
How do you get through to this per¬son that he's beaten? You don't. You destroy him because you have no other choice; he doesn't speak the same language of reason you're trying to use. Not because he doesn't want to, but simply because he's ignorant of your method of reasoning and the only way you'll get through to him is by tissue or neurological destruction.
The last and-in this author's opinion-most dangerous enemy you will ever run into is the madman, the lunatic, the crazy man. Not only is he a combination of the first two because he doesn't care if he wins or loses, nor does he understand when he's beaten. In addition, he's like a mad dog and will take you down with everything at his disposal until he runs out of breath or blood or both. Added to this is the fact that, despite the connotation of words like madman and lunatic, this one is no fool.
Socrates said that there's a fine line between genius and madness, and it works both ways. The madman may be regarded as a fruit loop by society, but he can revert to genius in an instant. The 250-IQ physicist, on the other hand, still can't work out bumblebee propulsion, even though he can launch rockets into space.
The main thing the so-called madman has going for him is that society at large often doesn't comprehend him or his mental processes-and is always scared of him. And once you feel fear you're starting from the back of the pack. Adrenaline often kicks in under stress and could provide the last kicker needed to win a fight. The problem with dealing with a crazy man is that much of his mental imbalance, killer instinct, and cunning can stem from an adrenal problem, so he's ahead of your game anyway, wittingly, or unwittingly.
The average person will use verbiage like "Leave me alone or I'll kill you," but he doesn't literally mean it. The loony will say it and mean it. There are some people you just don't mess with.
So we're back to the initial problem of fear of death and/or pain as evi¬denced by most people when trouble is imminent. If you don't have bile, anger, or a killer instinct to override your Shakespearean "distill'd almost to jelly with the act of fear" temperament, you have only two choices: you can either
transform yourself mentally into a sim¬ulation of one of the three bad ones until the fight's over, or you can face the sorry fact that if you ever run into one of them you're probably going to lose. And you can't fake it. If you're rich, have kids, and a lot of fancy toys, there's no way you can pretend you have nothing to lose.
You're going to die sooner or later anyway. If it bothers you that much and you're hoping for longevity, stay away from the battlefield. Don't try to snow the snowman.

written by:Louis Awerbuck