Real Skills We are Losing Because of Modern Times

[MightyB]

What skills are on the way to extinction because of changing demands and expectations of the modern lifestyle? And what can we do to preserve those skills?

[Lucas]

STANCES!!! lol

j/k j/k...

I think, partially, its a matter of little access to people with specialized skillsets willing to teach them. I dont really think CMA as a whole is losing much of anything, for the most part its all being upheld...somewhere, someone is actively training every aspect of the unique practices you find throughout kungfu. Now I do believe that as a whole in general the kungfu world is not able to represent many things fully because many things are not perpetuated in the 'main stream', but are in the background just 'truckin along'

oh shoot my thought is interupted...have to work. :mad:

[GeneChing]

Attention spans are diminishing. Wait, what was I saying?

[Lucas]

gene needs ritalin...

[PlumDragon]

The skill of procedural programming has been dying out for decades, being replaced slwoly but surely by the object-oriented movement. :D

In martial arts, I feel most of the skills themselves arent really dying off as much as we dont have as much time to train them; so while so many systems still have the practices intact in their training to develop certain skills, they suffer from an overall degradation of skill development over time. This is why its so important for us to evolve our training to make the most efficient use of our time...

[hskwarrior]

Personally, i don't feel that there will be any skills lost. I think growth overrides death or extinction and in the "EXTINCTION" stages what WILL survive is the willingness to keep what they have but EVOLVE and GROW out of necessity for survival. Traditionalist fail to remember what we look at as TRADITION all had its starting point before it became tradition. So while we currently evolve, what will result from this evolution will one day become TRADITION as well.

And, if we do lose any skills, great, look at it like losing weight.

[Iron_Eagle_76]

Ignorance and naivety know no age or time restraints. In this day and age where so called wisdom is readily available a click away, too many uninformed and outright ignorant people make claims that are untrue.

Certain websites with masses of stupid youth who spout off about "Te He he, you doez teh deadlyz Kung Fu, you suck" followed closely by "if it's not BJJ or Muay Thai, it sucks" infests the minds of other ignorant youth who than take it as fact rather than opinion. Honesty as much as I like the internet and it's capabilities it is also a curse, because now every pi**ss ant douchebag can rag on things they would not do in person and spread lies and ingnorance with no repercussions.

I believe that ignorant propaganda is what will make good Kung Fu lose out, but than again I could be just sick of bigots and idiots on the internet.:)

(Also, did I mention stance training. Just kidding B, maybe:D)

[EarthDragon]

mightyB

What skills are on the way to extinction because of changing demands and expectations of the modern lifestyle?

spending adequate time to understand the art we are lerning so it may be used in sport, combat, self defense or to master the movements of our own bodies. only if enough time is spent one can decide if we are worthy enough for the art in which we are learning. if you havent done this then its not fair to judge the style, teacher or ourselves.



And what can we do to preserve those skills?
master the style and its movements..... only then are we able to make judements against it. This is the problem with part time MA's they take some lessons over a few months or years and then judge whats wrong with the style.. this is incorrect.
The masters of 100 years ago perfected what we learn now and all the fat and BS has been cut away and what's left works plain and simple, it is only the individual who has not understood its effectivness cuz he hasnt put his time in......It is this reason what you call "modern MA" sux.

[Drake]

We've lost a lot of hunting and outdoor survival skills, and our feet are generally too soft now to walk barefoot for any long distances. We no longer grasp the importance of being able to create our own shelter or identify what plants are edible and which ones are not.

Many of us can no longer hunt, and even if we could, fewer know how to clean and dress an animal. We can't run as far or as fast as we used to, and we are more susceptible to exposure.

Even with recent weaponry, most people have no clue as to how to fire any sort of firearm, and most think it's a matter of picking it up and hitting the fire button (thanks, video games).

We have no sense of the importance of community, either, because we've never experienced the danger of going it alone as opposed to moving as a group.

[David Jamieson]

1) Fine art production | Painting, sculpting, mixed media.

This is being lost to industrial design, digital production, photography and other forms of tools that are replacing the more tactile traditional tools. Depth of knowledge is being lost in regards to production of pigments, stretching canvas, and most of the techniques and applications that are applied through fine art.


2) subsistence growing | Knowledge of food production on a small scale such as kitchen gardens, and small livestock is being lost because of cities. These skills are becoming rural with only small pockets of effort in the area being found in large urban centers.


3) Language skills | people are passing high school without being fully literate these days. acronyms, poor spelling and atrocious grammar are the rule of the day it would seem. People's command of the English language is falling by the wayside.

4) Life skills | Yes, how to prepare food, how to practice good hygiene, how to communicate with others in various situations with amicability, how to be financially prepared, how to maintain a house, how to live within your means.

5) Spiritual technology | Meditation with intention, cultivation of personal transformation to the positive, knowing purpose in life through practice and creation of one's own reality. Many people neglect these simple things and they are becoming lost in a wash of dogmatism or fluff derived from willful ignorance. Too many flakey practices to bother even listing.

6)Fundamental principles of applied physics and chemistry. Stuff you would have known by grade 9 some 20 years ago, forget it, that caliber and depth of education is gone. the school curriculum have been steadily dumbed down over the last 20 or 30 years. Don't believe it? Pick up a newspaper from 1970 and read it then compare that with what passes for a newspaper now.

7) Compassion for our fellow humans. While many of us can muster this for someone we are familiar with or closer to, many of us fall into the trap of dehumanizing entire populations of countries based on a reiterated media stream.
For instance, Pakistan. I think it is a hard go to find anyone that can express all the good things about the nation that isn't from there. All this exposure we are receiving about vague terrorist threats, and safety, combined with our entertainment, which is generally violence in some form served up to make you smile at it using a formula based on the psychology of humans. How is it that we can now actively laugh as we see someone getting shot to pieces? Is it context? Or are we entering the stage where we have a fairly strong disregard for human life. We must be careful on an individual level here.

8) Musical skills. So many people cannot play an instrument anymore and most pop stars that are big time can't actually sing with few exceptions. Eventually, the grammy awards will be given to programs like autotune for doing such a good job and now that Japan has the hologram #1 selling popstar, it isn't long before humans no longer entertain humans with real creative skill and instead, we'll get more contrived and manufactured crap coming from the "recording industry.

As for Kung Fu, I haven't lost or left behind any of it. I just don't use that which I cannot apply...yet. lol.

This is my opinion anyway.

[Lucas]

We've lost a lot of hunting and outdoor survival skills,

Its funny that you mention that because I was recently thinking how trad. stance training is actually beneficial for hunting/stalking prey.

[lkfmdc]

How are you going to TRAP wild pray if you don't do chi sau!

[Lucas]

oh man....... :eek:


:D

[SPJ]

just like singing, playing piano--

diligence daily or with time.

in modern time or in ancient time

gaining skills with diligent practice over time

---

:)

[sanjuro_ronin]

What skills are on the way to extinction because of changing demands and expectations of the modern lifestyle? And what can we do to preserve those skills?

Hmmm...
The most obivious are the ones we no longer need on a daily basis such as hunting and farming.
Basic survival is not taught anymore and as such,most people would indeed not survive.
Beyond that, hard to say really.

[TenTigers]

Hmmm...
The most obivious are the ones we no longer need on a daily basis such as hunting and farming.
.
We do need hunting. Wildlife management is a neccesity.
Speaking of hunting, I was in the mountains in the woods, rifle and day pack, and tripped. I had to fold in and do a shuai jiao fall. I got up unscathed, and continued on my way.
So, stances and shuai jiao falling are needed hunting skills...:D

[lkfmdc]

We do need hunting. Wildlife management is a neccesity.
Speaking of hunting, I was in the mountains in the woods, rifle and day pack, and tripped. I had to fold in and do a shuai jiao fall. I got up unscathed, and continued on my way.
So, stances and shuai jiao falling are needed hunting skills...:D

meh, you were tripped by a squirrel trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

[sanjuro_ronin]

We do need hunting. Wildlife management is a neccesity.
Speaking of hunting, I was in the mountains in the woods, rifle and day pack, and tripped. I had to fold in and do a shuai jiao fall. I got up unscathed, and continued on my way.
So, stances and shuai jiao falling are needed hunting skills...:D

Really? you NEED to hunt for food?
So I guess you also have a farm? maybe a ranch?
Dude...
You know what I mean, we don't need to hunt for our food, we go to the grocer or the butcher.

[TenTigers]

Really? you NEED to hunt for food?
So I guess you also have a farm? maybe a ranch?
Dude...
You know what I mean, we don't need to hunt for our food, we go to the grocer or the butcher.
ok, fine. Then I was at the butcher, wearing my day pack and rifle....

[sanjuro_ronin]

ok, fine. Then I was at the butcher, wearing my day pack and rifle....

To be honest I am glad I don't have to hunt, I don't have it in me to kill an animal.
I know that if I had to I would, but still, I am happy I don't have to.

[GeneChing]

One of the major contributing factors to the decline of wude is the web. Online forums like this, as well as social networks, are not edited and minimally policed. That's good and bad. It's great that anyone can have their say, but most people are rather poor writers - or perhaps better put, they have weak communication skills. In the past, this would be filtered out, because it took more time and energy to publish things in print. There was an editorial process and distribution factors. But now, with everyone able to voice their opinions, there's a lot more noise to signal. And in that process, one of our most important signals, wude, gets lost.

[sanjuro_ronin]

One of the major contributing factors to the decline of wude is the web. Online forums like this, as well as social networks, are not edited and minimally policed. That's good and bad. It's great that anyone can have their say, but most people are rather poor writers - or perhaps better put, they have weak communication skills. In the past, this would be filtered out, because it took more time and energy to publish things in print. There was an editorial process and distribution factors. But now, with everyone able to voice their opinions, there's a lot more noise to signal. And in that process, one of our most important signals, wude, gets lost.

You've lost me Boss...
How does editing one's views or having them edited by another equal Wude ?

[David Jamieson]

To be honest I am glad I don't have to hunt, I don't have it in me to kill an animal.
I know that if I had to I would, but still, I am happy I don't have to.

Dude, me too, but I think you and me both have it in us to eat that animal if it's dressed and prepared for us.

In my eyes, we should learn to hunt, kill and dress an animal if we are going to eat meat so that we fully understand what it means to consume that.

As a former hunter, I get this and I am not savvy down with people who protest hunting while eating food that comes off of factory farms. That happens a lot! lol

I feel the same lesson in what it takes to grow and prepare a garden vegetable would be invaluable for a kid growing up. Probably eat their broccoli if they had to do the work of growing it. :)

[David Jamieson]

You've lost me Boss...
How does editing one's views or having them edited by another equal Wude ?

He's not saying that. He's saying that with open forums you get crapheads dropping in and shouting at people who have years of experience in a given field of study.

typically, nobody should have to deal with some little twerp, anonymously being a little jerk towards that person.

If someone walked into a church community on sunday and started shouting loudly about how great satan was and how stupid everyone in the church was for what they were doing, I"m pretty sure that little creep would get edited out of the church pretty quickly despite the christian love angle. :)

the same applies here or anywhere else. People lose their patience with churls and when it happens enough, you eventually lose your wude and start crushing them where you can as the ****roaches they are.

[sanjuro_ronin]

He's not saying that. He's saying that with open forums you get crapheads dropping in and shouting at people who have years of experience in a given field of study.

typically, nobody should have to deal with some little twerp, anonymously being a little jerk towards that person.

If someone walked into a church community on sunday and started shouting loudly about how great satan was and how stupid everyone in the church was for what they were doing, I"m pretty sure that little creep would get edited out of the church pretty quickly despite the christian love angle. :)

the same applies here or anywhere else. People lose their patience with churls and when it happens enough, you eventually lose your wude and start crushing them where you can as the ****roaches they are.

Ok, what is wude again ??

[David Jamieson]

Ok, what is wude again ??

Concisely it is "martial virtue" but in the parts and points of it, it is about being an upright person of good character, actions and repute. To be a gentleman if you will in spite of your knowledge of how to kill, maim or otherwise ruin someone's life with the violence you have come to study and understand.

[bawang]

Ok, what is wude again ??

a small baby cow that just born and not opened its eyes yet resembling a purple eggplant

[sanjuro_ronin]

Concisely it is "martial virtue" but in the parts and points of it, it is about being an upright person of good character, actions and repute. To be a gentleman if you will in spite of your knowledge of how to kill, maim or otherwise ruin someone's life with the violence you have come to study and understand.

IF that is WUDE, then how does one NOT h ave wude if they can't deal with *******s?
I would think the every embodiment of WUDE is the ability to deal with *******s in a civil manner, so by being exposed to "unadulterated *******s" our WUDE is truly tested far more than under the facade of civility.

[GeneChing]

Basically, when anyone can post, people who have not been schooled in proper etiquette (or people who just can't express themselves within a prescribed code), you get crap posts. Back before communication was so accessible, you'd have to go through channels to publish and distribute your writings (or rantings as the case maybe). That weeded out a lot of noise.

Now it's mostly noise. And the noise drowns out the wude. The basic tenets of any code of etiquette are decorum and propriety. That's all lost in a noisy place. In a noisy place, it becomes all about who yells the loudest.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Basically, when anyone can post, people who have not been schooled in proper etiquette (or people who just can't express themselves within a prescribed code), you get crap posts. Back before communication was so accessible, you'd have to go through channels to publish and distribute your writings (or rantings as the case maybe). That weeded out a lot of noise.

Now it's mostly noise. And the noise drowns out the wude. The basic tenets of any code of etiquette are decorum and propriety. That's all lost in a noisy place. In a noisy place, it becomes all about who yells the loudest.

Perhaps but it seems that in this case noise = honesty.
Blatant and sometimes uncivil, but at least honest expression of how people feel.
Sometimes we have to get dirty before we get clean.

[bawang]

martial virtue is about responsibility using violence. blackwater scandal in iraq is a example of lack of wude.

[GeneChing]

But honesty? Honestly... If I have to read about another fb (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kung-Fu-Tai-Chi-Magazine/135964689362) friend's nice lunch or such and such. I mean what is up with that? How many fb posts are there about what people are about to eat and why would I care? There's a self indulgence to that honesty. Sure, they're being honest. They're happy about what they're about to eat. But that's not really something anyone else cares about. That's noise. That's stuff we have to sift through here on the web.

[ginosifu]

Ok, what is wude again ??

Wu / 武 = Martial
De / 德 = Morality

[David Jamieson]

Perhaps but it seems that in this case noise = honesty.
Blatant and sometimes uncivil, but at least honest expression of how people feel.
Sometimes we have to get dirty before we get clean.

I think that to give belligerence some attribute of virtue may be mislaid.

Uncivil and blatant truth is truth, yes. But uncivil and blatant rants deliberately shouted out to amuse oneself, bemuse others and to draw negative emotions from others still is lacking in honesty. It is at the onset deceitful and lacking.


Sometimes you need to say something stupid to be told to shut up and listen too. At which point you will exercise proper etiquette by giving a listen and having tact, or you take insult and move on not having yet learned the valuable lesson of equanimity amongst people of a given line of thought or practice.

[sanjuro_ronin]

You old ****s just don't like it when some young pub tells you that you're full of **** and that what you did to fight of dinosaurs in your day doesn't apply to today !!
:D

[bawang]

i think helio gracie has many wu de.

[Lucas]

Ok, what is wude again ??

I am! Don't make me flex my Wude muscle.

[Lucas]

But honesty? Honestly... If I have to read about another fb (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kung-Fu-Tai-Chi-Magazine/135964689362) friend's nice lunch or such and such. I mean what is up with that? How many fb posts are there about what people are about to eat and why would I care? There's a self indulgence to that honesty. Sure, they're being honest. They're happy about what they're about to eat. But that's not really something anyone else cares about. That's noise. That's stuff we have to sift through here on the web.

I deleted my face book, and have vowed never to return. I think it is a waste of time for someone like me.

[bawang]

strangers add me to their friend then delete me 2 month later and make me cry
i dont like facebook its more like gaybook because it for gays
many many gay

[David Jamieson]

strangers add me to their friend then delete me 2 month later and make me cry
i dont like facebook its more like gaybook because it for gays
many many gay

People delete you because you are an anonymous troll who posts inappropriate things on their facebook pages that their family reads.

then they realize that they should probably hunt you down and kill you for your petulant ways, but in the short term, it's easier to unfriend you and delete your posts off their pages.

;D

true story.

[Lucas]

People delete you because you are an anonymous troll who posts inappropriate things on their facebook pages that their family reads.

then they realize that they should probably hunt you down and kill you for your petulant ways, but in the short term, it's easier to unfriend you and delete your posts off their pages.

;D

true story.

do you have a youtube vid to back that up? otherwise the law of the internet says its not true. :p

[MightyB]

Found this on another forum. Just cut and paste and check in the appropriate boxes in response to posts whenever it's appropriate:
------


Dear:

[ ] Clueless Newbie
[ ] Loser
[ ] Previously Banned Member
[ ] Bruce Lee Wannabee
[ ] Troll
[ ] Spammer
[ ] 13 year old l337 d00d
[ ] Flamer
[ ] Whiner
[ ] Book Taught Loonie

You Are Being Flamed Because:

[ ] You posted a Style Vs Thread
[ ] You posted a personal attack against a mod
[ ] You should have used the Search Feature
[ ] You posted the Real Ultimate Power site again
[ ] You posted a thread in Ninjitsu asking about smoke bombs/night training
[ ] You posted a MMA Spoiler in Traditional Healing
[ ] You posted a thread stating you can run up walls
[ ] You posted a ( WarCraft / WoW ) vs Diablo 2 thread
[ ] You posted an OMG The Sky is Falling thread
[ ] You resurrected a long dead, stupid thread
[ ] You posted a "YOU ALL SUCK" message
[ ] You flamed someone and got burnt
[ ] You posted a thread on Dux Ninjitsu
[ ] You haven't read the stickies
[ ] You asked why you can't get into the arcade on your first post
[ ] You typed in text/leet speak
[ ] You posted false information then refused to back it up.
[ ] You posted a video/site we've all seen a thousand times before
[ ] You believe that people from video games are great MA experts

In Punishment, You Must:

[ ] Take down all your Bruce Lee posters
[ ] Stop posting and go to class 3 times a week
[ ] Actually post something relevant
[ ] Read the **** FAQ
[ ] Go to your room with no supper
[ ] Apologize to everybody on this forum (except GeneChing, who loves it!)
[ ] Stand in the corner and do kata till you die of boredom
[ ] Ride over your collection of MA video-games on a bike
[ ] All of the above


In Closing, I'd Like to Say:

[ ] Learn to type using ALL the correct letters
[ ] Welcome to last week
[ ] Press Alt and F4
[ ] Can I have your stuff?
[ ] Don't let the door hit you in the ass.
[ ] All your base are belong to us. Go every Zig.
[ ] Read the **** Stickies! They are there for a reason!
[ ] All of the above
__________________

[mickey]

Greetings,

A major skill that we are using is the ability to think independently. This country has become a bunch of media programmed reactionary rabbits who will believe anything that is fed to them via media.



mickey

[Yum Cha]

...losing the ability to eat your enemies once they are defeated.

I think only the Tea Party still has it.

[AdrianK]

I believe that ignorant propaganda is what will make good Kung Fu lose out

Keep in mind this: Respect is not something you are entitled to, no matter who you are or what you have accomplished. It is something that is earned with each and every person you come into contact with. Everyone has at least one opinion that could be considered "ignorant", its your job to earn their respect, if you want it. And if you don't care about it, then who cares about what they're saying.

That being said, if you really can't stand the declining reputation of chinese martial arts, go ahead and train some fighters and prove them wrong... many KF guys always talk about how their students don't fight or need to fight because there's nothing to prove, well modern day society says there is, if we intend to continue to pass down our arts.

Lets stop with the closed off "tournaments" and get into the professional arena.

[AdrianK]

Greetings,

A major skill that we are using is the ability to think independently. This country has become a bunch of media programmed reactionary rabbits who will believe anything that is fed to them via media.



mickey

I'd say its quite the opposite. We're thinking more independently now then ever before. True that the television has become a major source on how people form their opinions, but before that it was just as bad... dictators, religious fanatics, etc.