When our AirWing was getting ready for deployment, we would do a lot of war-games. Our planes would be instrumented to the teeth and we would fly in special areas so every nuance of the battle could be recorded and played back.
The funny thing is that the cool technology doesn’t play that much of a role in who is perceived the winner.
The winner was the first person in the debriefing room. “First to the whiteboard, wins.”
Whoever gets to tell the story, gets to slant things in their own direction - regardless of the evidence.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how this applies to the civilian world and the result is pretty sick.
It is socially accepted to hunt people.
Let me say that again. It is socially accepted to find a person you don’t like, stalk them, and kill them.
If it happens under a few basic criteria:
The person you killed is from a different (perceived lower) social strata than you.
You lie through your teeth about a perceived threat or are so jumpy that you perceive anything as a threat.
Those threats can be but are not limited to:
Moving hands in any way whatsoever.
Being different than you.
Flirting (perceived). This can be as simple as saying hello or just ignoring the killer.
Defending themselves. (Worse, defending themselves successfully).
As long as you are sure they are dead, you have a pretty good chance of getting away with it.
When you are the only one who can tell the story, your life gets much easier.