Describing the "fight"-taking a look

[Former castleva]

The word "fight" has been very ordinary when talking about street encounter and self-protection issues.
Like here,at kfqgmagazine.

Let´s take a look at what we´re chatting about.
My own "local",loose translation for the word in my language:=
"Fight is a crime in which a person (or more than one person) causes death or (less or more serious) injury for another person (may it be one or more) "
This is what law has to say about it in my country.

When one goes deeper to the subject,it begins to show a different kind of meaning.
Let´s pick one fictional story about fighting: "I was walking towards my apartment when I was suddenly attacked by a mugger.I got into a "fight" with him.I "fought" back and was able to escape".
Looking at this tale we can notice he was "fighting",was he fighting the illegal way,did he cause harm?
Let´s take another story: "I was walking on the streets at night while I saw someone walking towards me.He had not intention to stop me,but when he was close I reached out and took him out"
Now the character of the story is "fighting" once again.
Was he fighting back? Or did he fight for nothing?

Now let´s make our best to solve this.Let´s first check out the story one.
Main character is moving peacefully,until he gets assaulted by an attacker.He survives the "fight".
You could say he "won" the fight,but he was not actually necessarily fighting.Why?
The guy who attacked was the one fighting-he "fought" the innocent man and committed a CRIME (fight) It is not all wrong to say that the "hero" fought or fought back,but in other hand it would be foolish to say so as he was actually/in fact PROTECTING/DEFENDING himself from the fight/fighter.
So the crime happened,but defender survived.

Now looking at story two:
Now the same guy is back to his own business,but now,instead of getting attacked,HE attacks.
He becomes the criminal.His victim was not able to defend himself.
Now it´s he FIGHTING.

Conclusion:Protecting and fighting are two different things.
To defend is to stop the fight,not to fight back.
Self-defense/Self-protection.
Things being this way,there are only survivors and destroyed ones left on the battlefield.
No winners.

What do you think?

[DelicateSound]

I agree mostly - but this is how I would have put it:



FIGHTING: A physical conflict between two entities. A person can fight another. Two dogs can fight. Armies can fight. It is a conflict; an opposition that usually becomes physical.


Guy No.1 fought, but this was in self-defense.
Guy No.2 fought, but this was an attack or assault.



The difference is merely in motive - determined by ones morality. A "fight" is a pretty generic term, and is often misused.

However, I disagree on:


To defend is to stop the fight,not to fight back.

If someone attacks me, I feel that the best way to protect myself from harm is to fight back - to render them unable/unwilling to carry on fighting with me. In other words - take a swing at me and I will put you down :D

If I just back off and defend, I will be overpowered. No?





But good post BTW. Thought provoking. :)

[Former castleva]

Thanks for your input.

That´s a good point.
I was thinking about same kind of things when I wrote the thread,but I wanted to get it out quickly;)

"If someone attacks me, I feel that the best way to protect myself from harm is to fight back - to render them unable/unwilling to carry on fighting with me. In other words - take a swing at me and I will put you down

If I just back off and defend, I will be overpowered. No? "

I see.
I agree.
We´re talking about the same thing,it´s just that my verbal path to get into the point was different.I created this just to decrease the number of misunderstanding.When I talk about ending the conflict rather than "fighting back" ,I want to show that to defend would not be to create more destruction.

*insert big grin here*

[DelicateSound]

Cool I thought you might have meant that - I just thought I'd be an arse! :D Yes, defending is to end it - by whatever means. If he backs off, cool. My goal is to make him stop trying to kill me. After that he can do as he pleases, I'm not going to kick him when he's down. Chances are I've put him through the tarmac anyway :)


Seriously - good post. :)