In many disciplines humans tend to rely on singular sources for information in and before making decisions. Is this smart? Not so much and yet this is how we humans work, we want things a simple as possible so many of the biases we suffer from tend to push us in that direction. The compliance profession depends on that a lot and that industry encompasses many, many, many disciplines from the entertainment industry, to the government and to the ad guys who use that discipline and principles to persuade us to do things.
In the discipline of martial arts and karate, at least in the beginnings as I perceive it, practitioners rely heavily on the information provided to them by sensei. The higher the level the greater the status the more the practitioner(s) rely on their teachings and that includes the data used in those teachings.
It took me a couple of decades to come to the realization that what I was taught, philosophically and theory-wise, was not exactly accurate, logical or even made sense. My only luck was that for self-fense, the physical part that is, my sensei had a fair amount of hands-on experience in both social and asocial encounters. Yet, even then, when I started to study others of that ilk I found that even his experiences didn’t fit the complete bill on self-defense (not combative’s like for the military or those professions such as police, security disciplines and corrections folk).
Even the pro’s tell us that what they teach is the tip of the iceberg and there is a whole lotta other stuff hidden just below the surface as deep and dark as the ocean’s themselves.
One of my pet peeves is when one source creates a tribe like environment where the members create a belief system that says this one source is the end all source who shall never be questioned regardless of other sources as to facts and validity, etc. They end up becoming saint like and are held at levels not even religions place people who are exceptional in their lives.
I can tell you that in my experience I have run across a few masters who when questioned or corrected with facts that cannot be questioned tend to fall back on their belief systems and fall into the state of denial. I know of one historian of martial arts and karate who provided a master documentation from sources considered valid and of good reputation, etc., that countered a teaching only to have that master come up with emotionally driven statements, think cognizant dissonance, etc., to refute the presentation even when it is apparent what they are doing simply because they cannot admit error. I am guilty of that too but am proud to say that with a concerted diligent effort I have been able to accept such things and changes - mostly. Call it a work in progress.
What I am truly grateful for is the current work and effort of folks who are studying history and references on martial arts and karate so that we may be better informed such as Andreas Quast Sensei and that comes from our modern techno social media driven Internet. Warning: The Internet is chock full of fake information so data-mining and fact-checking are a must.
No one, no one discipline and no one individual has it all for there are multitudes of electronic brains out there trying to gather, store and make sense of all the information available and more is becoming available every milli-second of ever moment. So much so it has become an industry worth billions of dollars.
What I do for myself, for my education is to put out there on various media venues my thoughts, ideas, theories and beliefs often with references so that I can get input from the many awesome sources on things. I question everything even that of masters in my disciplines regardless. I fact check and research things as far as possible then I present things in the hopes others will provide counter arguments, counter theories, and facts that counter or validate my efforts so I can lean, grow and prosper as a person and a martial artist and karate-ka.
I do NOT BLINDLY follow one person, style or system for I have come to understand, for the moment, that to do so stunts progress and may lead to grave harm or even death - bummer grave harm or death.
So, don’t get emotional when your read my stuff, don’t assume anything, don’t make it personal and don’t think for a minute that I am saying you are right, wrong of anything in between. Cooperation and Communications are about survival and humans require that to survive regardless of the social advancements humankind has achieved. We still have a long way to go and if you doubt it just take a peek at the current events of today.
Our time, modern times, are our chance to really take things beyond anything we could imagine or do in past times so we shall achieve enlightenment if we simply try hard, work hard and look to everything with questions, questions and more questions.
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