Combat: Why Words Matter!

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

In recent postings and articles comments were made about being some sort of "grammar police, etc." I responded that I lean toward word/phrase accuracy and correctness speaking to facts and ensuring the reader understands the message and does not make mistakes or come to misunderstandings. Words are like that, they are and if you don't get it right people will assume, perceive and believe...in this discipline that could result in grave harm or death. 

Note: Combat - fighting between armed forces; take action to reduce, destroy, or prevent (something undesirable); synonyms: battle, fighting, action, hostilities, conflict, war, warfare; death-match. Ask yourself, if you were an ordinary citizen sitting in a box already influenced by the system that you, the defendant, must have done something wrong or you would not be sitting there think of when the word combat comes up as to your expertise and training? How many of the definitions and synonyms would be perceived as aggressive and may suggest a premeditation toward violence, etc.? 

Fighting: this is an illegal action according to the legal system except when sanctioned in events such as boxing or other sport. 
Fighting between Armed Forces: the military have different requirements as to law and legalities and the concept of military often trigger the actions seen and perceived in media like movies and even comic books. 
Take Action: this can be perceived as aggression as to take action tends to convey a non-defensive methodology. 
Destroy: to destroy can be perceived as aggressive fighting with the intent to do harm and not as a thought, idea or belief one is trying to protect and defend. Often such words lead to actions that far exceed the limitations of self-defense defense. 
Battle: think about this one, are you going to battle that is sanctioned, like the military, by the law and the social reality of civilians? 
Hostilities: to be hostile is to be antagonistic, malicious, venomous, and even vicious; are these traits readily connected with attacks and the need to defend and protect?
War and Warfare: these speak for themselves because the social reality is that violence is unacceptable except in self-defense defense requiring one explain why they could not avoid or escape and evade such an attack. It isn’t war or warfare where the rules require grave harm and death of an enemy combatant, can you see that? 
Death-match: may be a cool term and may be the dedication and commitment you want to stop damage and an attacker and is it still a word that promotes a defensive posture and mind-state? Just the word death speaks to a state of mind of a premeditated aggressive mind who sought out violence and may promote the other guys defense of how you attacked him viciously? 

One more thing, the phrase “take action” by and of itself is how you must commit yourself if attacked or if entering a situation and/or environment where aggression and violence may be possible so by itself is not truly negative as to connotations and yet…it could still be used against you if you could have simply avoided the confrontation by walking away or if the situation dictated you failed to take action in escaping and evading the attacker(s). Can you imagine just how the legal system, society, could use the very words you used in training and practice against you to win their objective of, “Someone HAS to go to JAIL!”

Words lead to concepts, concepts lead to actions and those actions are how we in the community express the discipline in social reality. Words, concepts and actions contribute to the words BECAUSE words, concepts, and actions matter in our reality BECAUSE even in the simplest form of marital application, sport, the participant can be gravely harmed. 

In the dojo, between dojo-mates and from sensei and senpai, over time, an understanding is achieved and that social reality in the dojo provides the type of continuous and constant exposure words tend to work themselves out AND when that teaching and perception is then sent out into the public domain a failure to ensure the words and word patterns are correct lead to the type of misunderstanding and mistakes that martial practitioners cannot afford to make especially in regard to self-protection and defense. 

Many of the postings, comments and articles presented in a public forum such as blogger and FaceBook, etc., their accuracy and correctness is critical as in a public social reality the reader is going to assume according to their understanding, perception and beliefs and it is this juncture that mishap, mistakes and dangers rise to the top as cream does in milk. 

For instance, many people within the martial communities use terms, words, to convey concepts that seem, on the surface, adequate to things like self-defense/protection. If the term is defined appropriate to the situation and training and practices and that is how it manifests in the heat of an enemies attack and the practitioner achieves success in stopping the damage and ending that attack that is a good thing. You probably already know that when the first responders arrive and the practitioner starts to articulate what they did as to self-defense know and using a word like "combat" without a deep and abiding understanding of how it applies to what you learned and what you did...MATTERS! You don't want to depend on the first responders and the legal system to properly define that term BECAUSE their experiences, their perceptions and their beliefs may see it as proof the practitioner did NOT achieve self-defense as a good defense. 

You can see how this is true when you understand from professionals in violence and aggression explain it and it takes volumes and volumes of the written word and word patterns, can you not? You can imagine how having that voluminous source and reference can and does enhance the reality of training and practice, can you not? You can imagine that words matter, articulation matters and how you train and practice matters when you meet the after of violence, can you not?

The following links are examples, not foolproof or bulletproof, of how words and word patterns work and matter. As you probably already know such presentations, periodicals, articles and other media are huge contributors to one's knowledge and understanding and you can see how that contributes to your studies, practices and applications, can you not? Sooner or later, hopefully not later when the repercussions are critical, you will know and understand that this is critical BECAUSE you matter, your life matters and how you achieve success to retain those valuables matters, can you not? 

Here are the example articles:

Words, Their Importance https://isshindo.blogspot.com/2018/09/words-their-importance.html
Defining Street Fighting https://isshindo.blogspot.com/2018/09/about-street-fighting.html
Is it Pedagogy or Is it Andragogy? https://isshindo.blogspot.com/2018/09/pedagogy-or-andragogy-of-martial.html
The Tree: Mystery of Learning https://isshindo.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-tree-mystery-of-learning.html
The Catchphrase https://isshindo.blogspot.com/2018/09/catchphrase.html

Know this, you probably already do, I am not a grammar police; I am not an editor to your articles, posts or comments; I am not being critical of you or your beliefs AND I am trying to question what you present toward a better understanding and to gain clarity of your message. I do not want to get it wrong; I do not want to suffer the consequences of failing to ask questions; I do not want others to simply assume things BECAUSE that could lead to some very damaging events they may suffer; I do this ONLY because it is presented in a PUBLIC FORUMAND …that means others may not understand, they may assume and they won’t question others perceived to be experts, professionals and teachers, etc. 

In short, I QUESTION EVERYTHING…not as a critique but a search for answers that benefit and achieve the objective of one’s understanding AND that is a good thing. 

Have a POSITIVE day AND Mind Your WORDS!

Bibliography (Click the link)

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