From: kickda@studsys.mscs.mu.edu (Damien Kixk)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Badass Karate (-Do?) -- note: lengthy post
Date: 10 Nov 1992 03:24:07 GMT
Organization: Marquette University - Department MSCS
            <24079@alice.att.com> <25507@sybase.sybase.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: studsys.mscs.mu.edu
Summary: Deals with my views on the commercialization of the marial arts 
           - Commercialization of any art is harmful to the 'spirit' of
             that art -- especially so with the martial arts

In article <25507@sybase.sybase.com> thorick@sybase.com (Thorick Chow) writes:
> ...
>My current teacher has just retired from his 'straight' job (teaching
>High School)..  Up till now his life has been nothing but teaching
>High school during the day and MA just about every night during the
>week..  and teaching MA all day on Saturday...   
>
>I've sometimes wondered why he didn't try full-time teaching of MA
>for a living.  One thing that comes to mind is that by NOT depending
>on it for a living, he could do and teach exactly as he saw fit
>without worrying about getting or retaining the number of students
>necessary to make a living at it (though I think he usually had
>enough students that he could have gotten by)..   i.e. he didn't
>have to 'sell out' or commercialize (read 'cheapen' to the purist)...
>
>any comments on this idea ?
>

       Many of the marial arts -- if not all -- are rich ex-
  pressions of the cultures which have engendered them.  In
  a way, they are very much a folk tradition.  Consider the
  way in which most of the arts have been "passed down" --
  historically, the propigation of the martial arts has been
  from master to pupil, master to pupil ...  The master-pupil
  relationship dealt with more than the simple acquisition of
  a skill -- like going to a technical school and being taught
  the skills one will need to succeed.  The master's role was
  very much one of a mentor -- more than just a bi-weekly
  appointment with an alloted slice of time.  Frequently,
  students would live with their masters -- much in the same
  spirit as a page serving a knight and learning from him.
  Or, to use a less archaic allusion, consider a university
  professor taking an undergraduate under his/her wing and
  guiding that student throughout the course of his/her
  academic career.  Or, perhaps, consider a grandfather
  teaching his grandson how to fish for bass -- a bit over
  sentimentalized to be sure but not that far a stretch
  considering many schools of martial arts were indeed kept
  within the same family for generations.

       What is this saying?  That to turn the teaching of
  the martial arts into a commercial enterprise is to strip
  those very martial arts out of the cultural heritage which
  have nurished their development.  Yeah, but the times, they
  are a changing ... what's your point?

       I feel that the commercialization of the martial arts
  is grevious crime to the very martial spirit which was
  once the backbone of "the arts".  My reasons for feeling
  this way are uniquely mine -- since this is, by nature,
  very much of an opinion kind of a thing.  I feel that the
  capitalization of humankinds' skills, to turn what it is
  that a person can do into a commodity, is to fundamentally
  alienate humanity from itself.  Humankind becomes part of
  the very mechanism of capital which humankind itself created
  and the creator ends up serving its creation ...  This is
  a quasi-poetic attempt at voicing a bit of a neo-marxist
  view on the nature of captialism.  But not to stray to far
  afeild -- yes, I think that going commercial is a sell out.

       No wonder the old masters were reluctant to teach their
  art to outsiders ...

       And here comes a completely modern twist ...  Don't
  sell out!  Keep ma underground and keep it punk!  Check out
  the martial art history of Okinaowa ... strong tradtion of
  underground rebellion against an oppressive society.  
  Strong tradition of self-reliance.  What about ... Capoerica?
  ... that martial art that came from African slaves learning
  to fight while in shackles.  What about ninjitsu?  Could
  one possibly get any more radical than that?

       ... I feel that no true art should be made commercial.
  Keep it underground ... keep it "punk".

       So, there are a "few" of my reasons for feeling
  that the martial arts should be more than a mere sport.
  A comercial enterprise.  Like the NFL or something.  I am
  of the rather sad opinion, however, that the martial arts
  have become a weak shadow of what they once were -- 
  especially in the usa where there never was much of a tradition
  to stand on and seeing as how we are pretty much the world
  wide icon of commercialization.  Go Pepsi.  I mean, Tak Kwon
  Doe in the olympics?  Judo has long ago surrendered ...
  The goal of the founder of the Kodokan has succeeded, yes,
  Ju has not "died".  It has been transformed so much that
  it is no longer recognizable as resembling what it once 
  was.  (Could someone still truely call the Catholic church
  Catholic if it lost the believe in the pope?  When some-
  thing of fundametal importance -- essentially definitve --
  has changed can that thing still be called what it once
  was?)

       Which I think brings up the question of -- How can
  we truely speak of there being a martial art if not in
  the presence of a martial society?  Hypothetically: The
  only county which could truely speak of having a martial
  art would be a war torn country ... and who would want
  that?  How can there be martial arts where there is peace?
  Or at least, how can you truely speak of a martial art
  unless there is fighting of some sort which is a common
  factor in you're life.  Not just the potentiality but
  rather the actuality ...  To talk of such a thing, would
  it not be a bit pretentious?  Would this not make for a
  "pack of suburban commandos?"  ... Any comments on this?
  please?

-- 
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