Karate as an Organism

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“The idea that organizations are more like organisms guided the attention toward the more general issues of survival, organization-environment relations and organizational effectiveness, and away from goals, structures and efficiency, which were key themes in the machine metaphor.” - Franz Osinga, Boyd Thesis

Reading this quote while studying the thesis Mr. Osinga wrote about Colonel Boyd’s work, A discourse, it occurred that modern martial arts, to include Okinawan and Japanese forms of karate, are practiced as to goals, structures and efficiency especially as they would better apply to the teaching, educational implemented, oriented model that needs criteria to learn and test for thus promoting the dan-i system, sports and commercialism. This apparent has a negative effect toward the martial arts as a defense/offense discipline even when used in sport competitions. 

Although the underlined talks about the machine metaphor that still applies to how we structure the training models especially for control, power and often status driven egoistic models of martial arts. It takes the human out of the equation. It makes it easier much like the conventional applications in defense/offense vs. the maneuver applications in defense/offense where the first opens the door to ease, instant gratifications and multiple choice questions and answers in testing, all models used to measure learning in an educational environment such as schools and universities where true organic studies through analysis and synthesis are suppressed until the level of education for doctoral thesis work, much like Osinga’s work on his Boyd thesis. 

Now, using the organism guide or model we can redirect our attention to the human, general, issues of life itself toward nature’s instincts of survival, the social relations of groups or tribes as to survival and the effectiveness of the tribe as well as the individual as an independent entity association and connected to the tribe or social cohesive one, the dojo with dojo mates along with sensei, deshi, senpai and kohai, etc. 

I can see how an organic take on the study of such a dynamic discipline like martial arts would also require a morality to counter moral turpitude (Conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty, or good morals. Crimes involving moral turpitude have an inherent quality of baseness, vileness, or depravity with respect to a person's duty to another or to society in general. Examples include rape, forgery, Robbery.), a moral concept necessary to learn and apply such dangerous and potentially deadly discipline in accordance with survival requirements (moral) of the independent individual toward the social tribal survival needs and requirements. 

This concept warrants a lot more study and analysis in order to synthesize a possible beneficial model toward the growth, depth and breadth of marital arts disciplines training, practices and most importantly its applications. 

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