From: burdickd@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Dakin Burdick)
Subject: Re: Badass Karate (-Do?) -- note: lengthy post
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 20:57:39 GMT

In article <1dna0nINN332@spool.mu.edu> kickda@studsys.mscs.mu.edu (Damien Kixk) writes:
>
>       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".

Hmm.  I see a couple problems with your idea.  You ignore
the benefits that have come out of commercialization of the martial
arts.  Nowadays anybody can drop into a dojo/dojang/kwoon and take
a couple lessons or watch a class, and because of that the martial
arts are more generally accepted.  If you radicalize the arts (as
seems to be your intention), you're going to worry a lot of the
people who have to worry about radical warriors.  The Police come
to mind, as does the FBI investigating armed radical bands.  Not to
mention the fact that your instructor will have control of a very
tight little clique of secretive martial artists separated from
society as a whole and will certainly be tempted to take things
to extremes (check out the cult posts this week).

I'd say that it is wise not to let money decide what or who you
teach, but charging tuition does establish a contractual bond
between you and the student, and it certainly helps pay the rent
for us working stiffs.  

>  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.

Again I disagree.  I think that teaching the martial arts in the
U.S. is hard; Americans expect a lot and an instructor has to be
a good teacher to make a living.  And the commercialization of 
the arts have allowed Americans to pick and choose from the best
techniques of the various arts imported to the country.  As for
tradition, most of the best martial artists come to the U.S. 
(because it is a great commercial power) to live and teach.

>       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?

I'm sorry, but this is pretty ludicrous.  You don't have to
be at war to learn the art of war.  And the point of the martial
arts is to learn to live a better life, not go off to war and die.
If you want to head off to Lebanon to learn the martial arts, be
my guest, but I just got done reading an article about a Lebanese
karate instructor (the "father of Lebanese Karate" as a matter of
fact) who moved to California.

Dakin
burdickd@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts