“Live in the Yellow”
~1 Corinthians 16:13
Jeff Cooper (1920 –2006) was a United States Marine who served in the Pacific Theater of WWII. Cooper taught that the most important means of surviving a lethal confrontation was neither the weapon nor skills. In his book, Principles of Personal Defense, Copper argued that the combat mindset was the primary tool of survival.
Copper developed Cooper’s color codes of tactical alertness, but it 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.
Here they are.
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 yet alert. No specific threat situation. In “yellow: you’ re simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.
Orange: Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger.
Copper developed Cooper’s color codes of tactical alertness, but it 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.
Here they are.
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 yet alert. No specific threat situation. In “yellow: you’ re simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.
Orange: Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger.
Red: Condition Red is Fight. Your mental trigger has been tripped and the fight is on.
Men live in the yellow. They’re in a constant state of relaxed alertness— watching over the unsuspecting, those they love, and any temptation threatening him towards sin.
A man is keenly aware of the enemy’s strategy; “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The temptation is to live in the white but not for a man. He is different than his counterpart males. He lives in the yellow. He is watching and aware of his surroundings at all times.
He strategically places himself between his family, those he loves, and their enemies—especially the invisible ones. He stands in the gap in prayer. He sees the big picture developing. He watches over his marriage. He plays out the decisions of his children. He navigates the way because he lives in the yellow.
