One of the best survival skills you can have is the ability to blend in with a crowd so you can avoid attracting attention. With riots erupting across the country, if you find yourself caught in the middle of a crowd of protestors and rioters, the best thing you can do is avoid standing out so you can blend in and escape.
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This is called being a gray man. (Or gray woman, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll use the term gray man.) The video below by Black Scout Survival explains what a gray man is and how you can become one.
The ability to blend in doesn’t just depend on your looks or clothing, but also on your movement. You need to move with the flow and direction of the crowd rather than against it. You also need to move at the same pace as the rest of the crowd.
When it comes to looks and appearance, the gray man is simply an average person in every way. There are no features that make him stand out. A gray man does not mean you can’t be tactical, but it does mean you can’t look tactical.
Think of it this way: If you walked into a grocery store right now, would you stand out, or would nobody notice you? Ideally, nobody would notice you. But for that to happen, you need to look very average. Don’t wear any identifying logos or flashy clothing.
Instead, wear clothes that make it easy for you to blend in. If you were to wear a hat with a USA flag or the logo of a sports team, it would immediately stand out. This is fine if you’re open to conversation with patriots and other sports fans, but not during a crisis scenario.
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It’s harder if you have characteristics that you can’t get rid of. For example, you may be very muscular, you may have a birthmark, you may be unusually tall, and so forth. These kinds of things will stop you from being a gray man, and the best thing you can do in this case is to blend in as best you can.
You probably have some questions. If so, I highly encourage you to watch the video below for a more detailed explanation.
I cannot be a Gray Man, no matter what I do or how I dress. I’m 6’4″, 270lbs. I have silver/gray hair and striking(so I’m told) blue eyes. If I have short hair, I look military or a LEO, if I have long hair, I look like a biker(actually, I’ve been all three, at one point or another), and I have a couple of tat’s.No matter what, even at my age(60+ some), I attract attention, if only just a long glance. I walk quietly, and am frequently accused of “sneaking up” on folks. So, I’ve adopted the role of “Dont F*** With Me” Man. My hair is down to the middle of my back, have a very long beard(also gray),dark, innocuous t-shirts, jeans, boots, sometimes a hat and sunglasses(Rx, heh heh)and usually a weather related outer garment(another, untucked t-shirt, unbuttoned shirt, or jacket, primarily for concealing my sidearm usually with a”New York Reload”, and other edc I choose for the day. So far it has worked. I still get looks and glances, but they are a lot shorter. I don’t smile much in public, except at small childen, who will stare you down, and rarely am approached for conversation, and when I am, I speak quietly and straight to the point. It’s never been about a bluff, I can back it up in MOST cases, but I hope the day never comes when some young bucks decide to try the old man on. My mantras are the old sayings “Fight me if you wish, but remember, I’m old for a reason”, and, “I’m too old to fight, and too tired to run, so…….”. Hope it continues to work, because all I really want is to be left alone.
Danny spent 25 yrs as a cop..saw guys like you that blended in doing undercover work…old bulky coat…walking with a cane (that doubles as a club)..old hat…pushing a grocery cart…always think out of the box if you really have to kind of blend in there is always a way…
My problem is that I’m the only brown guy in town! Lol. It sucks! Can’t blend in anywhere!
One of the most important things about achieving “greyman ” status is going to be your own ego . If you think you are , or actually are an alpha , DROP that posture right now . Being an alpha when you have or need to take control is a good thing . Alpha behavior gets noticed . Be aware of when that can be a detriment . The entire premise is to blend in .
If you are a wanna be alpha , you better be able to back it up . Others may be relying on you, truly know what and what not , you are really capable of. Physical weakness or fear are everyday conditions we have to live with . There is no failure in that . Failure will get those that pretend , but can’t when real world situations arise . This site is here to try and prepare you . If you are not seriously preparing to do the things you must , because your ego may get hurt , you are not prepared.
That’s some of the best advice that people could/should take.
It’s entirely possible that police and or military may be the greater threat to our well being. Something to consider, that being grey or even invisible…be a high priority. WROL situation, could be a military coup or an illegal use of martial law powers.
Generally the grey man idea is garbage.
Other than you do not want to be looking way out of place.
The problem is that if you are to plain, you will be noticed. Maybe not by everyone, but by me and others that you would not want to notice you. You will only appear to “blend in”, to the other “sheep” or to unwary, unskilled predators.
For instance in the video he brings up caps with some thing on them, a logo, a patch, etc.
99 % of the caps out there have something like that on them. Although everybody notices it, that it is not remarkable. However a cap with out anything on it, is very remarkable and memorable.
So which is more “grey” ?
Who is more noticed the guy that never speaks, or the one who does not say a lot but is not terribly silent either. A lot of the “Grey Man” thinking, over thinks what is ” grey”. Just being normal is being “grey”, for the most part. Trying to go unnoticed WILL get you noticed. Because no one can do it well enough.
By looking like one of the ” sheep”, you are also looking like a victim to any predator that is out there.
Predators do not attack other predators, they attack the average, the vulnerable.
This applies to everyday life, but gets even more enhanced post SHTF.
The chances of being, sick or injured (at some point) in a SHTF scenario are greatly increased. So if you are dress out as a “sheep”, you are now looking like an “injured sheep”, the perfect prey.
Now a predator’s first choice is always one of these, unless it is recognized as another predator or a dangerous choice to attack, at any time.
Something to think about.
The next problem is one of mentality. All of these guys think they know what every one will be dressing like or carrying post SHTF, but will they really?
How many people will be wearing Camo? How many will have regular Back packs? Military Back packs? Tactical vests? Weapons? Etc?
No one really knows, so how are you going to plan to blend in?
Some of this will be area specific, so if you are forced to travel, to relocate, what makes you a “grey man” may change. In the Country, everyone might be wearing blue jeans, western hats and pistols or hunting attire and rifles. But they probably will not be looking like that, in the City.
So by not having acquired these things prior to SHTF, you can no longer be a “grey man”, because your wrong choices, ( wrong mentality), will make you stand out!
The Grey man stuff is better suited to current spies and undercover operatives, than to Post SHTF operations.
I tend to agree. That’s why it’s always good to have your sheep dogs dressed as sheep for when the predators arrive.
This is how I see it too…. A grey man isn’t a sheep, they are a planned act, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or a house dog at least.
While they look like everything else, there’s a key difference I’d suggest Mic might have missed… the Grey Man-Sheep is there by intent, not accident. They are also aware of their surroundings and there should be many subtle signs that they are not sheep.
They might have ear buds in, but won’t be listening, instead they’ll be listening to their surrounds, so when you start to tail them they slightly alter their behaviour and suddenly don’t appear as vulnerable.
They might be wearing that cap with no logo on it, but when you start trying to tail them they lose the cap in a sudden swirl of crowd and now have a hoodie up and you lose them. And the no-logo cap was because they aren’t carrying an entire costume warehouse on their travels, just a 90% good enough approximation of most things in a few simple items.
A sheep that looks vulnerable isn’t going to be a competent grey man. A competent grey man knows how to look like a sheep but walk just a little stronger, stay out of the risky areas as they amble along and avoid the conflict they can see up ahead. They won’t have 100% safety, but they won’t be as vulnerable. Part of Grey Man Tactics is coupling it with urban movement/situational awareness techniques. Ambling slowly across the road in no particular hurry Could be to avoid that dead street light over an empty parking lot that just had a cigarette crushed underfoot in it…. you might see someone casually wandering across a road, they might be actively avoiding a likely mugging.
To assume that all sheep are sheep is to show your own weakness. Many sheep will be somewhere between household dog and wolf, who have learnt the value of looking like sheep. And not all dogs worry the sheep/are predators, many will be guard dogs/Maremma too.
Some of you seem quite clueless about real life.
A real predator will know that Sheep Dogs are there( even if not in plain sight) and “sniff’ them out.
A good criminal knows when cops are around, even when they can’t see them. The same goes for military personnel, they can “smell” an ambush. Women are often great at detecting both “creeps” and “protectors”.
A Human’s 6th sense or intuition will reveal the presence of what they are on the look out for.
Then it is only a matter of looking for tell tale signs, to confirm it.
Like a person looking too “grey”, trying to hard not to be noticed, not looking odd enough.
Normal people look odd. They dress odd, They act odd. Trying to “blend in”, tends to make you stand out.
If all else fails, during SHTF, one could fire off a round, and see how everyone reacts; you would quickly know who the sheep dogs are.
Then a predator would know who to target, first. When they are ready to attack.( You should realize that a good predator (or group of them) will size your group up, figure out your strengths and weaknesses, long before they actually attack you.)
You see there is no way to hide, you may some what blend in (be a grey man) some of the time, but not all of the time. Your actions and instincts will betray you.
Becoming the invisible man, women, person. In our so called techo society with every kind of way to track you, aka ipads, ipods, lap tops, computers, automated billing systems of every kind, camera’s all over the place, satellite technology, e-mails all over the place and so on and so on it becomes more and more difficult. It remembers me of the episode on Star Trek, 1960’s titled I Mudd in which the android’s would take over the galaxy by serving all, aka humans and others. Once they were all being served they then would be dependent and controlled by the android’s forever.
Long ago and far away some wise man said of becoming the Gray Man: “If you live in the ocean, you must become a fish.” If you can follow this reasoning it makes perfect sense. Do, look, speak, act and smell as those around you.
The problem with looking like a fish, is that it makes you food for sharks and other creatures.
Fish give predators a wide berth, so do most other predators,(try studying predator behavior).
It is easier to attack a fish, rather than another shark.
So all you are doing is making your self into prey and hoping that you do not get in the group that gets eaten. Not a real bright idea, IMO.
It is true that the fish don’t notice you, if you look like you are another fish, but then they were never a threat to you in the first place.
I think that put the Grey man thinking in it’s proper perspective.
Then be a dolphin. They are adored by all yet feared by sharks.
Get the book by Matthew Dermody. Worthwhile and you can hold it in your hands.
Some of this practical info, you’re gonna want to print up now, make a place to keep them.
Just because you read and have knowledge… members of your family/group may not and if you’re incapacitated….well, everyone’s screwed.
We have books, papers…so that the wife won’t be too freaked out if something happens to me. We also frequently camp …she knows about shelter and firemaking…
She doesn’t like the guns, but knows how to use them.
same here please not so many vids
What good is a video on blending into the crowd going to do when the SHTF and we’re without computers or even electricity? If I can’t print out a matching article, there’s no point in watching because I can’t possibly remember all the tips that are published daily on the ‘Net.
Danny, the video is for those that have decided the printed word is too much effort . As a “Boomer” laws taught to read , actual fully spelled out words . Contractions were done using an apostrophe between the last few letters . Now wh are down to 3 or 4 single letters acting as a sentence. If the dedication does impact the ventilation very few of the younger generation will be able to use a real book , for more than sanitary purposes . You obviously have a full understanding of the limits of technology.