Empress with a baseball bat?

I'm having trouble reconciling this whole 'influence others through sheer personal magnetism' business that keeps coming up with the Empress card, with the *reality* of the sheer, fucking ASSHOLE-ness of the people I encounter on a daily basis.

Give them the benefit of the doubt? Why the fucking hell *should* I when they're so quick to jump down my throat, attack, persecute, what have you, for *NO* fucking reason whatsoever, other than that they fucking 'feel like it'?

FUCK that.

I *have* to hit back. 'Nice'ness simply doesn't *work* with these people - they just take it as license to back up and run over me *again*.

FUCKERS.

And maybe, with time? I can learn to only use as much force as absolutely necessary. But: The *only* way I'm going to learn is with practice.

I also like the martial arts approach I read about (can't remember what it's called) that advocates using the *attackers* strength against them, or, at least, turning their 'attack' to your benefit somehow. Not sure I'm really up to that - it's a lot of fucking work. On the other hand, it may turn out to be *less* work than actively fighting them.

Hm.

Worth considering.