Non-profit, profit or commercialization, that is the question. Many speak about how one style or system must unite in order to survive but is that true? People can tally up the associations, etc., that are meant to lead martial arts and karate systems but how many actually accomplish that mission? Then there is the, "Why are there so many of them?" questions. It is most difficult to answer and maybe that is one reason why, it is very hard to collectively get humans to agree on any one thing due to variances in beliefs, perceptions and connections to sensei, senpai, dojo and styles.
Although the organizations are first envisioned to bring folks together and with the best of intentions it doesn't take long, from my cheap seat experiences, for those same organizations to devolve from greatest of intentions back down to things like, "Money, status, ego's and other more human emotionally driven objectives."
Then there is the shear "size" of these organizations and the inevitable politicization that occurs. Politics, as well from best intentions, tends to also devolve into, "control and power."
Ego's, status, control and power; not necessarily in that order, lead to disparities, disagreements and offshoot organizations. Take on style as example, it has tried since it's inception of the mid-fifties to bring together the top ranked leaders to make "one wholehearted organization" to unify the system and its members. Even that one wholehearted system leadership could not come together to agree on how that should occur. If they had there would, "be only one!"
Lease folks forget, humans are not and were not meant to be large. History shows us when societies grow larger the controls diminish and then the entire social structure, in time, collapses into oblivion. Even today, many of the worlds social structures have or will fall apart, fall into conflicts both internal and external and finally; one day in the future, fall into oblivion. Even those social structures that have managed to remain in existence over the millennia still find themselves in separate groups of small membership.
We are not meant to exist and survive in larger social groups, the disparity in beliefs, perceptions and lifestyles, etc., makes it impossible. It becomes unwieldy, unmanageable and vulnerable. Only when the groups are smaller, dynamic and bonded, etc., do they survive for their common good.
There are very good reasons why humans still gravitate to small groups for the dynamics are manageable the its hierarchical makeup, "works!"
Groups like karate associations may have a purpose overall but as to leadership, not so much. It's about money, money and its inherent need for power, control and status. This is why small dojo work best in martial arts and karate. It allows personal bonding that humans require and cannot be met in larger groups or even in the modern social media we "like" today.
It comes down to the ability to have "face-to-face" connections with others of like mind, beliefs and perceptions, etc. It can be no other way and making out small dojo who resist such trappings the bad guy won't promote unity at any level.
My recommendations, find a dojo that is local, small and has the right ratio of teachers to students that foster best teaching practices to the benefit of all members rather than try to cater to everyone in or out of any group.
The group of karate leaders to which I mention today, still have NOT found unity, cohesiveness of system/style nor standards, practices and training that span’s the entire spectrum over that found in separate distinct dojo instances.
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