The Man in the Street 243
even a pacifist (unless he’s on par with Mahatma Ghandi) can’t
hold back. An interrogator will do this deliberately by synchronizing
aggressive gestures and verbal attacks in an effort to bypass the
source’s cognitive functions, provoke his emotions, and keep going
straight to his mammalian brain to get the basest response possible.
When humans enter into “war as human nature,” only the most
adept person can casually walk away from the outcome without
long-term damage to the relationship. We use this one as a tool in
interrogation because people will defend themselves when they feel
threatened. Whether you think you have killer instinct or not, if I
get in your face, scream, and call you a maggot, your animal self
will rise up. When you go into a limbic mode (that is, emotional),
you will simply respond instead of thinking. The results are clear
frombody language. Fight-or-flight body language surfaces: flaring
nostrils, dilated pupils, elevated respiration, white sweaty skin,
tensed muscles, and grinding jaw.
In this scenario, a great deal of the body language of confron-
tation will be involuntary, although not necessarily universal. You
might use flailing arms or clenched fists without thinking about them,
but these are gestures culture has ingrained in you as signals to
arouse fear in the enemy.
War as politics
When one group attacks another to preserve or enhance its
social, economic, or political interests, then war as politics comes
into play. This makes particular sense if you believe that the unify-
ing element of a culture is a shared view of quality of life, that is,
what makes life good.