Responsibility

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

I recently wrote an article involving the movie industry but in this article I wanted to touch base on individual responsibility especially as it pertains to martial arts in general, those who teach martial arts, those who teach martial arts as self-defense and those who are held to a higher standard as leaders and luminaries of the martial arts. 

I want to start at the end, there are those out there who have gained a level of expertise and mastery in martial arts. These are the experts, those who came before us, who have achieved a certain level of perceived mastery, expertise and status that literally makes them a defacto go to person on all things martial arts. In my system or style these luminaries are often referred to as “First Generation Direct Students of the system’s master.” 

Many of those who are a part of the martial arts communities often perceive these folks as pretty special and more often than not tend to put them up on a pedestal making them also often as persons who should not be questioned, persons leading a belief system that is without fault. 

I have witnesses members of such groups to actually become verbally and even physically violent when someone dares to question something being taught as dogmatically unquestionably. This is especially true when questioned through socially driven media, the defacto way to convey thoughts, ideas, theories and facts. 

When someone becomes a person of status such as a master or expert or professional martial artist, as with almost any discipline, they must also assume a level of responsibility to those who would follow their system of beliefs, etc. I liken it to the fact that movie stars have a higher level of notability, visibility and influence on their fans and when they step out of the arena of entertainment into the reality of our world then they must assume a greater sense of responsibility to what ever they provide such as commenting on things that they don’t have expertise on and coming from an emotional standpoint over actual and complete facts, etc. 

Gun control is a good one where many who step up with such credentials to say how it should be handled and due to their status have a huge amount of influence on what others would think is irresponsible of those luminaries especially if their perspective is not complete, comprehensive and supported by the facts, research and resulting findings. It reminds me of the old adage, or meme, of how one should count to ten before commenting or acting especially as it pertains to emotionally charged events and so on.

It is why I write and research and analyze and try to synthesize things of the martial arts world along with the self-defense aspects that hold such a prominent position in the teachings of the discipline. I found that a lot of what I had come to understand in the martial arts world of self-defense after about thirty years of study and practice and teaching was just either wrong or hugely incomplete that I stopped teaching self-defense altogether so as to NOT influence practitioners to use inappropriate, dangerous and legally incorrect methods of defense if attacked either socially or asocially. 

I felt that my expertise was insufficient to teach hands on self-defense martial arts and I try to be careful to convey and provide caveats in my articles so as to provide anyone reading my stuff from assuming incorrectly what it is I write about. I have a feeling this is why I have and still write so much stuff. A good example in the self-defense world is the vastness of the information a self-defense professional puts out on the web and in his books about the subject that even in basic fundamental form takes up huge amounts of pages, words, and subject matter. See the bibliography below for a somewhat incomplete listing of those guys. 

The reason I started out with the last mention in the first paragraph is because that is where the buck stops and where lessons, knowledge, and understanding start - they have set the foundation and once the foundation and cornerstone are complete, cured and set then the effort to make changes becomes almost impossible except in very rare cases. 

As an example, I often write more philosophical and personal theories, ideas and opinions on many subjects within martial arts and self-defense that when they seem to question the beliefs of others end up being vehemently refuted even if what I write and way is not truly a refuting of others teachings but simply a question or other that provides another perspective and perception of possibilities. In short, what I provide often shakes their comfort zone and seems personal when in truth, at leasts to my intent, is not and is only a possibility that can be  either absorbed or discarded as appropriate to the reader. 

As I began, the reason I started with the last is because each stage that follows also must assume responsibility regardless of whether they become teachers or they apply those taught and mastered skills in the real world, especially as to self-defense, combatives or fighting (social, asocial or sport oriented, etc.). 

In short, “martial arts in general, those who teach martial arts, those who teach martial arts as self-defense,” all have a responsibility to make sure what they teach is real, true, and based on reality as it pertains to the actually applications, i.e., sport vs. defense vs. combative and so on. 

I have even taken responsibility for my writings from time to time almost to the point of stopping completely because the writen word, as I have demonstrated in other articles about meme’s, quotations and other such derivatives, word is often misinterpreted or mistaken simply because as a form of communications tends to lack all the other communications of humans through voice inflections, body language and other such non-verbal communications. It is one reason I have such a long caveat linked to the beginning of every article I write. 

In short my articles REQUIRE the reader to take what I provide not as gospel or unquestionable but rather as another perspective that MUST BE ANALYZED by the reader then, if of any value of even the slightest, MUST BE SYNTHESIZED or MERGED into what you already know, understand and practice, etc. 

All too often students, teachers, martial artists and especially those with the greatest influence, and therefore responsibilities, take things literally and without question as the defacto fact. The greatest crime to one’s efforts is to assume that even if it is correct that it will never change is irresponsible to all concerned parties. 

It is truth that what is correct in this moment may not be in the next, it is the way of things. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)