Koontz News
The Cooper Color Codes
May 30, 2019
Early on in The Night Window the “Cooper Color Codes” are mentiond. What are they?
The most important means of surviving a lethal confrontation, according to Cooper, is neither the weapon nor the martial skills. The primary tool is the combat mindset, set forth in his book, Principles of Personal Defense.
The color code, as originally introduced by Jeff Cooper, had nothing to do with tactical situations or alertness levels, but rather with one’s state of mind. As taught by Cooper, it relates to the degree of peril you are willing to do something about and which allows you to move from one level of mindset to another to enable you to properly handle a given situation. Cooper did not claim to have invented anything in particular with the color code, but he was apparently the first to use it as an indication of mental state.
The following is from The Carry Book: Minnesota Edition, 2011:
White: Unaware and unprepared. If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be “Oh my God! This can’t be happening to me.”
Yellow: Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation. Your mindset is that “today could be the day I may have to defend myself”. You are simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary. You use your eyes and ears, and realize that “I may have to shoot today”. You don’t have to be armed in this state, but if you are armed you should be in Condition Yellow. You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don’t know. You can remain in Yellow for long periods, as long as you are able to “Watch your six.” (In aviation 12 o’clock refers to the direction in front of the aircraft’s nose. Six o’clock is the blind spot behind the pilot.) In Yellow, you are “taking in” surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360 degree radar sweep. As Cooper put it, “I might have to shoot.”
Orange: Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. You shift your primary focus to determine if there is a threat (but you do not drop your six). Your mindset shifts to “I may have to shoot that person today”, focusing on the specific target which has caused the escalation in alert status. In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger: “If that person does “X”, I will need to stop them”. Your pistol usually remains holstered in this state. Staying in Orange can be a bit of a mental strain, but you can stay in it for as long as you need to. If the threat proves to be nothing, you shift back to Condition Yellow.
Red: Condition Red is fight. Your mental trigger (established back in Condition Orange) has been tripped. “If ‘X’ happens I will shoot that person” — ‘X’ has happened, the fight is on.
The USMC uses “Condition Black,” although it was not originally part of Cooper’s color code.[7] According to Massad Ayoob, “Condition Black,” in Cooper’s youth, meant “combat in progress.”
In short, the color code helps one “think” in a fight. As the level of danger increases, one’s willingness to take certain actions increases. If one ever does go to Condition Red, the decision to use lethal force has already been made — the “mental trigger” has been tripped.[citation needed]
The following are some of Cooper’s additional comments on the subject.
Considering the principles of personal defense, we have long since come up with the color code. This has met with surprising success in debriefings throughout the world. The color code, as we preach it, runs white, yellow, orange, and red, and is a means of setting one’s mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence, and is not as easy as I had thought at first.
There is a problem in that some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in, but rather in a mental state which enables you to take a difficult psychological step. Now, however, the government has gone into this and is handing out color codes nationwide based upon the apparent nature of a peril. It has always been difficult to teach the Gunsite color code, and now it is more so.
We cannot say that the government’s ideas about colors are wrong, but that they are different from what we have long taught here. The problem is this: your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation. You may be in deadly danger at all times, regardless of what the Defense Department tells you. The color code which influences you does depend upon the willingness you have to jump a psychological barrier against taking irrevocable action. That decision is less hard to make since the jihadis have already made it.
He further simplified things in 2005:
In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.
Wikipedia contributors. (2019, March 8). Jeff Cooper. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:15, May 30, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeff_Cooper&oldid=886739823
Hideaway on Blu-Ray
May 9, 2019
Hideaway has finally received a Blu-ray release from Cinema Cult. Sadly, for me at least, it’s Region 2, so it’s not going to play in the US without some jiggering of your hardware/software. (Amazon.co.uk) Of course, I’ll probably buy a copy anyway and it’ll be going into the site this week.
Cinematic Randomness has a review of the release.
Looks like I’m still on the mailing list.
May 6, 2019
Champion
May 4, 2019
Dean Laymon & Richard Koontz
May 2, 2019
It seems that Gary Brandner’s novel Floater contains two seemingly familiar characters; Dean Laymon and Richard Koontz.
Thanks to Paul Evans for finding this one!
The Night Window sneak peek
April 29, 2019
New reprint of “Kittens” arriving on May 21, 2019
April 25, 2019
Order your copy from Amazon.
Two interviews from 2017
April 15, 2019
Just dug these up. Thought you’d be interested.
- Dean Koontz: A rogue FBI agent against the machine, BookPage interview by Hilli Levin
- Goodreads Interview with Dean Koontz
What’s New & Updated April 8, 2019
April 8, 2019
It’s not much, but updates and additions they nonetheless are…
- The Forbidden Door PPBK
- “Amazing by Moonlight” by Joseph Wrzos, Weird Fiction Review #9 to Ephemera
- Santa Clarita Diet s03e04: More of a Cat Person to Ephemera
- A bunch of image alignment clean up on the Ephemera page too.
Dean gets a shout out on Russell Brand’s show
April 8, 2019
You can view the full December 15, 2018 episode on YouTube. (This post does not imply any endorsement of anything said by anyone in this or the linked video.)
What’s New & Updated April 1, 2019
April 1, 2019
As mentioned last week, this week was focusing on non-Koontz issues. So, there are no updates this week. You can however, look forward to The Forbidden Door Premium Paperback being released tomorrow.
Also, for those interested, here’s some updates site statistics:
- Guide entries: 636
- Edition entries: 1,674
- Images: 2,096
2019 Best Male Narrator
March 22, 2019
Buster’s Book Reviews volume 33: Dark Rivers of the Heart
March 16, 2019
Nevermore promo sketch
March 16, 2019
The Night Window: Chapters 1-4
February 20, 2019
Chapter 1
The triple-pane floor-to-ceiling windows of Hollister’s study frame the rising plain to the west, the foothills, and the distant Rocky Mountains that were long-ago born from the earth in cataclysm, now dark and majestic against a sullen sky. It is a view to match the man who stands at this wall of glass. The word cataclysm is a synonym for disaster or upheaval but also for revolution, and he is the leader of the greatest revolution in history. The greatest and the last. The end of history is near, after which his vision of a pacified world will endure forever.
Meanwhile, there are mundane tasks to perform, obligations to address. For one thing, there is someone who needs to be killed.
In a few hours, when a late-season storm descends on these high plains east of Denver, the hunt will begin, and one of two men will die at the hand of the other, a fact Wainwright Warwick Hollister finds neither exhilarating nor frightening. Of profound importance to Hollister is that he avoid the character weaknesses of his father, Orenthal Hollister, and at all times comport himself in a more formidable and responsible manner than had his old man. Among other things, this means that when someone needs to be eliminated, the killing can’t always be done by a hireling. If a man is too finicky to get blood on his hands once in a while, or if he lacks the courage to put himself at physical risk, then he can’t claim to be a leader in this world of wolves, nor even a member of the pack, but is instead only a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Read it all on Facebook
What’s New & Updated February 18, 2019
February 18, 2019
Simply put, nothing. Why? Well, last week I was on vacation, some of which I was home and sick. The rest I was relatively healthy and spending three bucket list-worthy days in The Big Apple. (Tolkien, Birdland, Louis Armstrong, Jim Henson, Jazz at Lincoln Center.) So, today is all about recovery and digging out from the six inches of snow that came down while I was gone and the larger virtual pile of emails.
See you next Monday.
Science Digest, November 1969
January 31, 2019
You’re going to have to dig deep to figure out the Koontz connection on this one… Or just wait until Monday’s site update.
Two chances to read The Night Window early
January 24, 2019
Goodreads has 30 ARCs they’re giving away and NetGalley now has eARCs available.
Dean blurbs Andrew Klaven
January 22, 2019
The mighty @deankoontz on Another Kingdom: “I turned the pages faster, faster, with growing delight. Scary, suspenseful, funny, wonderfully imaginative, ANOTHER KINGDOM is pure, unadulterated fun.” Pre-order now! https://t.co/3ryqHWgfmk— Andrew Klavan (@andrewklavan) January 22, 2019
No confirmation yet on whether the blurb will appear on/in the book at this time. (Though I assume it will.)
Ever so slight Frankenstein/Odd Thomas crossover
December 31, 2018
St. Bartholomew’s School and Abbey aren’t the same location but one can assume they’re run by the same folks.
