Arguing. It seems to be everywhere these days. You turn on
the TV, the radio, read the newspaper, even engage in a little good
natured
websurfing and you'll probably find a once calm, rational debate turned
into a chair throwing brawl. And while you try to duck out of the
way to save a broken nose, surprisingly you may find the people around
you entranced in these melees of hostility and retribution. You
may
even find yourself hooked on these unbelievable and oddly mystifying
events.
It has happened to the best of us. Even I have found myself
staying
up late watching "cutting edge" talk shows just to see one of the
contestants
rush in anger to pummel their former friend across the room. Only
to be stopped by some overpaid bar bouncer throw them to the floor and
then leave them alone to do the same thing all over again. A lot
of people find this sort of stuff really entertaining on a regular
basis,
but generally it is looked upon like mild car wreck during rush
hour.
No matter what mindset you are coming from, there will still be this
inherent
curiosity to look and see what happened. And a perhaps sliver of
happiness that it wasn't you in the wreck.
Now I don't want to get on the soap box here, but this arguing thing
has
gotten out of hand. Especially on the internet. The web has
an incredibly scary potential to make all other mediums look like a
snail
crawling uphill. Outside the net you have a small number of
people offering their opinion and arguing with everyone who doesn't
agree
with it. On the net, everyone in the world can shoot their
opinion
into open air and create arguments with, well... everyone in the
world.
Even in the Kenpo community someone can throw their hat into the ring
and
get it kicked around by some well meant, slightly overbearing, smart
aleck
with a computer and a website to put..., ok you got me. The
creators
of these three websites are just as guilty on the arguing issue, but
with
that said I am afraid the discussions you find in this section are far
more tame than a lot of the stuff you will find out there. On any
Kenpo website with a discussion forum, rest assured you will find an
open
debate on concepts between systems turn into a name calling, mud
slinging,
verbal fist fight. And even when someone with the good sense to
end
the "thumb war" (like the individual maintaining the site), the
argument
seems only to increase. It's almost like the people who wanted to
start this sparring match smells the fear (or lack of it) in your
demeanor
and goes in for the kill.
And I don't want to name names, but there was even a website on the net
that had sections specifically dedicated to letting the world know that
the founder of American Kenpo not only wasn't an actual black belt, but
that he was a sexist, racist, devout religious person. Man, that
last one was really bad wasn't it? I have to admit, I have been
looking
forward to saying this for a long time, and I know this subject alone
has
started some very heated discussions, and this may be a little rough,
but
I gotta say it. Now I haven't been around for a long time, but
when
I read this material for the first time I actually printed it out to
keep
a hard copy of it. Not because I believed any of it, but because
there were times I thought I might need a good laugh. With all
(and
immense) due respect towards Mr. Parker, I realize neither he and his
organization
need no one to defend it, they both stand on their own. But this
stuff was just plain garbage. I mean, to actually pick on someone
for being religious, what's next? "He helped little old ladies
across
the street and protected the weak." The rest of the sludge was
not
only unfounded, unimportant if even true, unrealistic, but just plain
wrong.
However, these stories were written, for no other reason then because
these
folks couldn't have even remotely gotten away with it what Mr. Parker
was
with us. Yet, this information is still being argued to this day
on forums (almost) everywhere.
All right, with that said, the folks that made these statements
genuinely
believe what they had to say. I mean, it's not like anyone who
argues
any point is going to say, "well, I'm going to argue this point to the
end, but I think I might be wrong." So does this mean my arguing
that last point is going to change anything? Does this mean any
of
the arguing that has gone on in the Martial Arts world in general is
going
to change anything? Let's just say that the chances of that
happening
make toothpicks look about as big as a telephone pole.
Because of this, we are going to do something new with our sites when
we
put a discussion forum. All of the other forums put disclaimer
statements
at the start of the forum asking to keep things clean and polite, only
to have the first message on the forum state that American Kenpo
practitioners
are sexist because the guys have their knot on the left and girls have
their knot on the right (sorry, that was the cleanest I could come up
with).
So what we are planning to do is let everyone know that they are free
to
write whatever they want, and maybe that way folks will do the
opposite.
Yea right. However, back to reality. In this country, we
are
free to do, for the most part whatever we want. Heck, I can even
partially rip off a rather funny, former Saturday Night Live star
turned
long running HBO talk show host for no other reason then because I
appreciate
his sense of humor. Yet, with freedom comes responsibility.
If your exercise of freedom ruffles another persons feathers, you have
to be mature enough to take a little pecking. In other words, if
you go to someone's discussion forum and say whatever you want, you
have
to be adult enough to respect and listen to their point of view
too.
And more importantly, not be surprised if your statements get an
unfavorable
response in your direction. Not to mention, if you do have
something
important and controversial to say, you might want to be adult enough
to
leave your name.
Let's put this in another way. Pretend for a moment that the
webpage
forum you have just entered is someone's house. And you read
where
someone has specifically said something to anger the followers of the
site;
which would be something similar to their relieving themselves in your
houseplants. Now a lot of times when the guests at the house and
the owner get angry with them and respond, the offender can't
understand
why everyone is unhappy. Generally, the offender won't even admit
that you just caught them relieving themselves in your house.
Granted
this is a very dramatic example, but judging from some of the comments
that have been left on several American Kenpo website forum's, it may
not
be that far off. Everything from extremely inappropriate comments
about individual practitioners and their family members, to stating
that
someone is a wimp because they don't like excessive groin contact and
are
curious if they are normal. And on the later note, I personally
would
be rather un-nerved towards someone who actually likes a great deal of
full contact groin strikes (and I've actually met someone who did like
that sort of thing, it was a truly creepy introduction).
Now with that said, what's the solution to all of these verbal tennis
matches.
Well it is quite simple really, the easiest answer you will find to any
question involving Kenpo in every way, the answer stressed in not only
all of the websites surrounding this feature but also in the Kenpo
community
at large, the super glue fix-all that is American Kenpo itself......
training.
Sure, that may sound silly, but nothing could be more true. It
has
already been established that the people starting these arguments
should
be listened to about as much as the Chihuahua from those taco
commercials.
And the fact is, even if these people had a valid point in their flame
messages to forums (which most of the time they don't even come close),
the people in the Kenpo community have already made their decisions on
the
paths they will take. Good or bad, in some way everybody has
their
own beliefs and their decisions are just that...their's. Even
this
discussion really won't change anything for the same reason, the
decision
has been made. But I will say this, I understand the need to
defend
one's position against verbal or physical attack. Heck, it is the
founding reason for the drive behind American Kenpo in the first
place.
I can't say that I understand the need to go into someone's house and
tell
the tenants they are wrong or confused or just plain dense. The
need
for this has always escaped me. However, for those how are on the
defending side of the turf, find comfort in what you believe, the Art
of
Kenpo. Training in Kenpo is what brings us all together, and no
matter
what side of the tracks we come from, it will always be the common
denominator.
So train hard, train often, and train wisely, that's more important in
Kenpo then anything. And don't listen to all this negative hoopla
that you are following blindly the wrong teacher, or that the founder
of
the system you are studying wasn't an official black belt from the
system
he started in, or that you'd be much more cool if you didn't wear your
cup to the next workout. The best thing you can due is follow
your
heart. All the political, macho, painful, and irrelevant stuff
will
work itself out in the end.
Although,
that is just
my impression, I could be mistaken.
|
Contemporary
Zen 2
