In the great heat and confusion of battle, you see men cower, become smaller, or retreat into some psychological refuge. Then you see the few who rise up out of the smoke and fire like an avenging spirit, usually with a mad gleam in their eyes and a slight determined smile, taking great pleasure in engaging a worthy enemy.
Without a named source, this sounds much more like Internet Tough Guy talk ("oh yeah, if some mugger pulled a gun on me I'd just give him a roundhouse kick in the hand, duh!") than genuine advice on how to deal with adversity.
I suspect that the author has never really had to deal with "the great heat and confusion of battle", either literally or metaphorically. I haven't either, mind you, but I imagine someone who had would write very differently about it.
I think he's just appealing to the fighter mindset that some of us do have. I don't think that's a general characteristic, or at all necessary to success, but some people (I count myself amongst them) get fired up by adversity... Like a "bring it on!" mentality where you get more and more motivated to win the more problems there are...
I don't think people who react differently are in any way inferior, though, which the OP does seem to think.
What makes me very angry is many people like that mean to go over the limits. That involves to lie, trick, and scam others. Truly disgusting and worthy of Gordon Gekko or Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise in Magnolia.)
Without a named source, this sounds much more like Internet Tough Guy talk ("oh yeah, if some mugger pulled a gun on me I'd just give him a roundhouse kick in the hand, duh!") than genuine advice on how to deal with adversity.
I suspect that the author has never really had to deal with "the great heat and confusion of battle", either literally or metaphorically. I haven't either, mind you, but I imagine someone who had would write very differently about it.