From: dpipes@spica.srg (Dave Pipes x4552)
Subject: Re: Diff. betweeREAD/NEWn Eastern and Western thought
Organization: Bifurcated Gedanken Zaibatsu
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 13:03:39 GMT
Followup-To: rec.martial-arts

In article <1992Jul29.205628.292@ccsvax.sfasu.edu> z_hilbornrs@ccsvax.sfasu.edu writes:
>What's the difference between Western and Eastern thought?
>
>This is an example of Eastern thought:
>Once upon a time in Japan an old man walked into a restaurant with two
>beautiful swords at his side.  Five ronin sitting at the bar decided that
>they wanted these swords because they were worth a great deal of money.  
>The ronin decided that they were going to kill this old man and take his
>swords.  They knew they couldn't just walk up and stab him in the back 
>because everyone in the place would be after them, so they decided to 
>taunt the old man and lure him into a fight.  This would be the only 
>respectful way to do away with the old man, and surely the five of them 
>could take this old man.  So they taunt the old man, but the old man just
>sat their eating his rice.  The ronin were watching the old man and 
>wondering what else they could do to provoke him as he finished his meal.
>After the old man finished his meal he caught three flies in succession 
>with his chopsticks and put them under his rice bowl.  He turned the bowl 
>back over and the flies flew away.  The next thing you hear is the sound of 
>five feet running out the door.

What happened to the other 5 feet?  Isn't this from the Musashi Trilogy,
the part with the noisy bandits?
>
>This is an example of Western thought:
>Lets take the same situation, but in the old west.  This old man walks into
>a bar with two beautiful colt 45's at his hip with pearl enlaid handles.
>Five outlaws see this and procede to harass the old man as above.  Again the 
>old man finishes his drink.  He then catches three flies in his shot glass 
>and sets it upside down on the bar, and then lets the flies go.  The 
>outlaws see this and say, "Your pretty good with a shot glass, now lets see
>how good you are with those pistols."  The next thing you see is five dead
>outlaws littering the ground.

Which movie is this from?  I don't remember it...
>
>The difference between Western and Occidental thought is that Occidentals 
>recognize mastery and Westerners have to have everything proven.

I thought that Western and Occidental meant the same thing?  And wasn't this
posting done to prove a point?  Wouldn't we have been better off just
recognizing your mastery when you posted any old article?  I guess I would
conclude from this that you are Western...:-)

I do, however, respect anyone who can condense the differences between two
different sets of cultures, nations and religions over the last few thousand
years into one pithy sentence, along with a nice cliche homily for those
short on brain cells but long on ethnocentric biases...

*I* think the difference between Western and Eastern thought is that
Westerners tend not to think, and so find it easy to believe that anyone
who looks different has All The Answers.

ObMartialArt: Is there really a difference between Western and Eastern 
Martial systems?  I think that, at base, the main difference is the number
of available techniques, not the intent or utility of these techniques.  How
much of this has to do with the prevalence of unarmed or expedient weapons
combat in the Eastern world, much later in time than in Europe?  Are there
any Martial arts systems native to the Americas (Pre-Columbian?)

Is it possible that these systems have their origin in a period before meral
(metal) weapons were in common use?

		David Pipes
robear@digex.com
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts