From: jchristian@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: attack vs. harmony
Date: 25 Dec 92 04:18:56 GMT
Organization: Wright State University

In article <4431@unisql.UUCP>, wrat@unisql.UUCP (wharfie) writes:
> In article <1992Dec22.010116.6325@desire.wright.edu> jchristian@desire.wright.edu writes:
>>"I only use my martial art for self defense."  But are there times when
>>you would use it to attack somebody?  
> 
> 	No.  Although I've sometimes been sorely tempted...  A person
> should not act to bring about disharmony and besides, attacking people
> is dangerous.  You never know when the guy might be lots better than you...

But where does disharmony begin?  I have my doubts that we can ever really know
the true cause of things, or whether it can be said that anything really has a
single cause.  Because of that, I have my doubts about whether we can say we
are maintaining harmony by not attacking, when in fact the harmony may already
be broken.

What if I'm walking down the street one night on the college nightclub strip
and some guy swing at me out of nowhere?  Do I have to wait for him to attack? 
Do I hope for that oh-so-reliable "I just won't be there" mind power?  If I see
this guy giving me looks while I'm walking, and he comes up to me and gives me
a hard but painless shove, do I wait for him to do something more dangerous, or
do I react off that one attack that was obviously not meant to hurt me?

Questions that come to mind:  Why is this person attacking me?  And in doing
so, is this person breaking the harmony, so I'm allowed to defend myself?  Or
is he about ready to break the harmony but hasn't quite got there yet, so I
have to wait for something a little more serious to happen before I can defend
myself?

Or what if this guy is carrying this chip on his shoulder because I unknowingly
offended him last week?  Say I bumped into him or took his favorite place at
the bar or something.  Did I break the harmony last week by giving him an
excuse to react to me?  Is he breaking the harmony by trying to get me to react
to him?  Is the harmony broken at all?  And if so, would it be healed by my
walking away?

Would I be unjustified in noticing this guy giving me a stare, staring back at
him and generally intimidating him so that he won't swing at me?  And if by
doing this, will he just harbor the grudge and try it again next week?  But if
I walk away from him without doing anything, will he just wait to try it again
next week?

I know this is all theoretical bullshit, but it somehow seems important.  We
are supposed to be the good guys, the no-you-swing-first crowd.  But you notice
in the movies and the stories that the good guys have one weakness: they can't
do anything until the bad guys do something first, and by that point they're
already starting from a deficit.  Is real life like the movies?

So back to my original question (after all this rambling).  What about harmony? 
Is the attacker always going to be the one who's breaking the harmony?  Is it
possible for the defender to break the harmony by not dealing with the
confrontation?  And does it even matter?  I assume it does, so that we don't
abuse our skills, and the only reliable system of checks-and-balances comes
from within ourselves.  But is the role of perpetual defense looking at a small
chunk of the big picture?  (It sounds suspiciously like Plato's necessary lies:
we justify our defensive role by saying it's the harmonious one.)  I'm not
advocating that we go around and do whatever we want without consideration, but
I also hope that we're not practicing under some grand delusion.  I hope you
guys can convince me that my doubts are unfounded.

Jeff
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts