I can't post to any other Martial Arts forums anymore. I just can't. It's like trying to preach to earthworms, at the end of the day you have wasted your breath on something that was both beneath you & will remain blind anyway. For every 10 articles I write for someone else, maybe 1 article penetrates to 1 person. Everyone else is, as they say in the colorful patois of my native South Carolina, "so eaten up with the dumbass, they need to see a doctor".
It always happens. I will try my damnedest to present a well-rounded argument, with points from all sides involved represented to some degree. You know what happens?
I get some 14 year old Tae Kwon Do black belt posting about his Master’s teachings on lineage.
I get a 19 year old Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blue belt spamming my post with “BJJ RULEZ!!” every 20 seconds.
I get some Karate freak telling me Martial Arts are for the perfection of mind, body and spirit.
The Aikido gallery has to chime in about the spiritual side of martial arts is more important than the physical.
…And then there’s MMA (Mixed Martial Arts.) The Cage. The Ring.
The Circus, as I call it.
MMA has become some kind of grossly unrealistic unit of measure for what is “real” in combat and what is not. Like martial arts is supposed to make you some kind of badass warrior who could defeat anybody. One guy on a popular forum had this to say “And the truth is, if it doesn’t work in MMA rules it won’t work anywhere else“
(If that were the case, the military wouldn’t carry guns. Just speedos.)
Oh, oh, oh, how about this, from an Aikido website: “Aikido must stand for something more spiritual for me, I find that mere self defense is too limited a subject to hold my interest for very long”
(ooohh, so let me see, would a nice shiny KNIFE UP YOUR ARROGANT ASS AROUSE INTEREST IN YOUR STUNTED CEREBREAL CAVITY, YOU VERBAL PAP SMEAR??!?)
Fucking retards.
Oh, by all means, don’t listen to the petulant alcoholic. What could I know…I have never fought in the UFC.
Actually, I shouldn’t be so cynical. As Americans, I believe we did it to ourselves. We just love mystical crap, and in the 70’s we would buy damn near ANYTHING that had a photo of Bruce Lee, Joe Lewis or a Ninja on it. And the more weirded-out and esoteric it was, the better. There has been a horrible joke played on American Martial Artists, and we still haven’t figured out the punchline yet: This stuff doesn’t make you invulnerable. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll kick some ass. Hell, it doesn’t even guarantee you’ll be the winner of ANY supposed outcome. It doesn’t do a damn thing for you spiritually (I have always laughed uncontrollably when someone tells me they are studying a path of ethics and restraint, while practicing a sociopathic love of violence.)
All Martial Arts (ANY martial art) can do for you is give you a slight edge when confronted with adversity. And then, only if you bust your ass down to the bone. Anything less, and it will choke up at the clutch right when you need it to work the most. It’s that simple.
But we hate hearing that. It has to be more. We want it to be deeper than “block, punch, kick”. And don’t get me started on the whole “women’s self defense” thing. Especially buzzwords like “Empowerment”. Or the old “rape is about power” thing. Yeah, that’s gonna help, some chick is getting violated nine ways to Sunday and by realizing “this is about power”, she’ll magically save herself. God, what does it take? Women don’t need to be “empowered”, they need to be instantly lethal within a second, and keep their wits about them. It isn’t like some false sense of security will stand up for them when what they really need a good Buick key into their attacker’s eyeball and sensible shoes.
Things like this just leave me grinding my teeth sometimes. I get a student every so often that comes in wanting to know if only a Ninja can kill a Ninja. Or how to do the “Dim Mak” (Death Touch). Or can they learn “Just some knife techniques, I don’t want to do stick or all that footwork”. Which is like telling me that you want to learn poetry in Sanskrit, never mind learning how to spell or pronounce the words before you pick up a book on the Hindu classics. I swear, it’s like people think all you have to do is pop a magic pill and you’ll know Juru Satu overnight. When it took me six months to learn all of it and another year to perform the Buah proficiently.
Ungh. It’s enough to make me want to wish it all into the cornfield sometimes.
3 comments:
Amen. One of the biggest reasons I gave up moderating and then posting on a martial arts forum. I don't have your breadth and experience, but I have some. And like you, got tired of beating my head against the wall trying to have a reasoned and thought out debate or conversation.
I think I'll just continue to read what you and Mushtaq and Steve have to say here in your blogs and leave the keyboard wars to others more inclined.
I loved it when I found out that the teachers in silat were called "gurus." Having come from old-hippiedom, where "guru" usually means something altogether different, I found it great to say, ""I'm going to see my guru today."
Wow! Really? What are you learning?"
"He's teaching me how to kick some serious ass ..."
Boot-to-the-head!
I don't read the MA forums much anymore and I post even less often. Once I had read through several threads on different topics and posted a few times I realized that very few people were interested in actually having a discussion. The majority seem to think they already know everything and have closed their eyes and minds to anything that might challenge their beliefs.
I'd be OK with this if they'd actually discuss their position rather than preaching or if they'd just leave people alone who are trying to have a well considered discussion. Unfortunately any thread that doesn't conform to the prevailing belief systems gets pretty well shouted down or turned into something other than the original point.
Post a Comment