PERSPECTIVE: The (In)Famous Karate Creed

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This is an exercise in critical thinking and analysis and not the opinions or beliefs or culture of the source Sensei Ed Parker or his systems and styles and teachings of Kenpo Karate. It is merely an exercise in study of how one perceives such codes as they could, may or might translate when the end result is manifested in use toward self-protection in self-defense and self-defense defense. Here is the code and comment of it by one source linked at the end: 

"I come to you with only Karate, empty hands. I have no weapons, but should I be forced to defend myself, my principles or my honor, should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong; then here are my weapons, Karate, my empty hands." -Ed Parker 

The Kenpo Creed is a modern code of ethics accepted by martial artists around the world. It was authored by Ed Parker for martial artists in today's world. It is used everyday by martial artists as a guide to developing a keen sense of justice. - AA Kenpo Karate Studios

http://www.aakenpo.com/site/view/78774_Home.pml;jsessionid=fgdi4p3jtns8

What I like to do for such an exercise is express that this is my opinion, perspective, expertise and beliefs and not that of Kenpo karate or Mr. Ed Parker, his family or his students or Kenpo communities here and across the pond, it is my expression and work and mine alone.

Lets begin the fun and frolicking in karate codes:

• I come to you with only Karate, empty hands. 
• this seems like a narrow assumption because humans consistently prefer using weapons as we have a resistance to use our hands against another human to do harm;
• there are weapons all around us and lets not refer to them as weapons but extensions necessary in protection and defense against aggressions and violence from nefarious sources;
• it may be that this part of the code actually predisposes one to be perceived outside the karate community as training their bodies to be the aggressor because many don’t understand the continued need of humans to have tools and skills necessary to protect and defend against criminal activity as social conditioning has led society in general to assume protection comes from the authorities like police only to find in the end that by the Constitutional renderings of the Supreme Court, rulings, that the police are not there to protect the individual. 
• in actuality the empty hands, literally, are not that effective in stopping a threat or attack but rather their use as a whole to manipulate through methodologies and applied force are superior. 
• I have no weapons, 
• this could be a positive because as a counter to the first code above this could possible convey to others that your intent by having a perception of no weapons means you are not intent on being an aggressor, etc. 
• this could also lead to practitioners assuming that the only weapons they have to combat aggression and violence is empty handed skills like karate and teaching and assuming and philosophizing such a concept tends to lead to limited skills and sources of protection and defensive tools to combat aggression and violence. 
• but should I be forced to defend myself, 
• this assumes one will have no other choice but to defend themselves using force and violence even at levels that adhere to social and legal requirements and laws because it tends to train the individual to look for it rather than detect it in a way that allows avoidance or escape-n-evasion or even deescalation through articulation, etc. 
• seldom is one FORCED to defend themselves BECAUSE attacks almost always come with roads signs and triggers and other things that trigger our spider sense of danger, Will Robinson, DANGER and that allows us if we are aware to perceive it in enough time to avoid or escape-n-evade danger. 
• my principles or my honor, 
• this one depends heavily on those principles and the persons sense of honor and what that is based on because many of the meme’s or euphemisms or quotes often convey, like this one, stunted and limited philosophies and thoughts and ideas that can’t be put in a wheelbarrow, i.e., such that they would result in physical damage while the emotional damage is not enough to justify such actions as self-defense. 
• should it be a matter of life or death, 
• honestly, if it has come to this point then the individual has failed in their training or has diminished in some way or form their awareness and has left themselves exposed unnecessarily. It is rare for most to end up here where it is a matter of life or death except in rare cases where a process predator has their sights on you as a victim. 
• of right or wrong; 
• whose concept of right or wrong BECAUSE in the self-defense martial arts industry, mostly, the right or wrong of it is based on ancient precepts of honor likened to the bushido concepts as well as ego, status and other types of concepts that also can’t be put in a wheelbarrow. There are exceptions but for the most of us, not so much. 
• then here are my weapons, 
• what you gained in no. two above you lose here by reinforcing a limited response attitude that when coupled with other misconceptions and misbeliefs and misperceptions leads us toward failing the self-defense defense test. 
• Karate, my empty hands.
• again, this fosters a belief and attitude that your only weapons may be your hands and in that case we can sometimes assume, asocially speaking at least, that your attacker is going to be empty handed as well BECAUSE making a false assumption that, in general, your hands and karate skills are going to be enough against an asocial type of attack that may involve a pipe or a knife or a firearm leads the practitioner to believe it is acceptable to take that on with just your empty hands… kind of ludicrous don’t we believe? 

This is the kind of thing everyone who uses any skill to self-protect and defend where the legal system will do the same process of nit-picken things to make you look like an aggressive pre-disposed violent offender who trains to take their empty hands out into the street looking for targets of opportunity to do karate damage. 

This is why everything we say and do and write and record can and will be used against your self-defense defense to ensure a WIN for the prosecutor and send you to jail not collecting anything and not passing the go to freedom. 

Yes, you may not face this and you may not endure this if you use your warrior like aggression and skills to stop someone stupid enough to attack you and you may be willing to roll that dice and YOU WILL be rolling the dice as to the attitudes of those who will make those decisions if you defend yourself without giving these things thought, consideration and due diligence in understand BEFORE you train, practice and most of all, APPLY!

WE CANNOT ASSUME when giving such codes out that the recipient will understand it when the times comes to apply it out there, in the wild wild west of life BECAUSE the variables are too great, to chaotic and rely on the individual standing in judgement when the day comes… TOO MANY VARIABLES so you MUST address and train and practice and APPLY all of it to achieve a chance at success. 

Now, to end this exercise I will say that I would assume and hope that those who provide and follow and teach by this code have gone to extensive effort to make sure all practitioners know and understand the self-defense defense, law and legal stuff necessary to learn and apply skills in an appropriate manner. This is assuming in one form or another the teachings are to be utilized for self-defense BECAUSE the self-defense social and legal world out there is chock full of “land mines” and a misstep will lead to catastrophic results!

For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)