go fight or go write... (a rant of my own)
it seems that what many define as the 'problem' with cma, is more of a dislike of modern society and its values.
we live in a world of fast food and information overload. like kung lek said, for every 250 bad students, there may be one good one. i think it has probably always been that way, not just now. not everyone has access to the 'good stuff', but the information and training is definately more available to the common folk than it was in the past. many of you would never even have the opportunity to learn what youre learning if you had lived in those enchanted times gone by. at least now you can access it. and sure there's a lot of junk out there, but half the fun is learning enough to recognize the good stuff, a rewarding part of the process. in the end, the shallow commercialized arts and misconceptions will be just that, and the real quality stuff will remain intact and understood by the few that are willing to work hard enough and look far enough. things that work and are useful will not become extinct. things may evolve as they always have, but the core will remain. i know i train hard...why should i care if everyone in society doesnt train like a shaolin monk or understand martial arts? if they want to be a fat slugs an watch t.v., i feel bad for them but hey, i guess on one level its just survival of the fittest. what do you think we should do, put them on diets, take away t.v. and place them all in exercise intensive labor camps? would that be good for their character? it might be fun to see, but its not gonna happen, and i'm not sure it would improve society. you can just be responsable for yourself, and those immediatly around you to a degree. unless you go into politics, which would be cool, maybe thats the way we can help society.
if someone cares enough to learn real ma, they can and probably will figure it out. if you don;t like the arguments over 'traditional -vs- mma' then just go do your own thing and ignore it. but if you choose not to partake, you will forfeit your points of view and certainly won't prove much or effect the outcome of people understandings of cma. so go write or go fight, no use just whining about it.
i think ryu has a great point and attitude; if you really have an issue and feel strongly that something is wrong with the state of cma, then figure out what to do and go do something about it. peronally, i think the 'problem' is beyond cma, i think its just the way modern society affects cma. whining about it just makes you sound like like a grumpy old man yearning for the past, as prankster pointed out :)
personally i think the modern world is fun, i like the overload and exposure that it brings. i like the cheezy martial arts flicks and video games that misrepresent the 'true' fighting arts. i even like to watch modern wushu athletes and the fact that i can fly to bejing to see it in the olympics. would being confined to one small village and its family style somehow be a superior and more desirable living situation for your society? things were better like that back then? not for me. you can have your museum quality forms and training. i have done plenty of that too and i learned a lot & enjoyed it, but i don't care to be mired in the past with a great albetross of tradition to uphold. the beauty of it is that i don't need to because many of you will do that for us, because thats what you like to do, and thats wonderful. i like to learn it and then move on and go try to apply the knowlege and techniques to the modern world. different personalities are a good thing. but just because i don;t want to spend my life kissing some masters ass and obsessing over tradition, doenst make me or others with my attitude somehow beneath the pedantics of society.
oops! d@mn slow browser....
please ignore the 1st post, read the 2nd edited one (if you even care to read all that jibberish at all) ;)