recent Macyoung article: TMA and "reality"

[MAreader]

Here's a great Marc Macyoung article about traditional MA and "real" fighting.

The article is recent.

It is titled: Traditional Martial Arts vs. "Real" Fighting

http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/traditionalMA.htm

[Laughing Cow]

Another great Article by him.

I know many will be offended by what he sez there.

Cheers.

P.S.: This would also fit well in the "Kung Fu Forum".

[Becca]

Excelent find.

[Samurai Jack]

"The problem is that many of so-called "reality based" people are never getting to that twenty-one stage where they are seeing that the world is more complex than what they think it is at "fourteen." In other words, they never see "how much dad learned in those seven years." As such they go on endlessly about "how this teacher doesn't know what he is talking about, " how ineffective "traditional" martial arts are for fighting or "how in a "real fight" you have to...." etc., etc., ad nauseum."


MacYoung is the bomb! This guy has something to say that hardly anyone else is willing to even consider saying 'cause they can't make money, or stroke thier own ego's if they tell folks: "My martial art will teach you to be a better person and avoid trouble...".

The next time some NHB bada$$ tells me aikido isn't any good for fighting, I'll proudly tell him he's right! Thanks for enlightening me, I really needed to read this.

[guohuen]

Thanks. Another great article from Mark MacYoung.

[Suntzu]

D@mn good read... someone should post it on the general forum...

[Merryprankster]

Ugh. More banal observations. His writings, while pertinent, are no different than others on the subject. Although, at least he recognizes...no...EMPHASIZES that self-defense and fighting are super-way-different.

But still, just sort of a rehash. I don't know why people go gaga over his stuff like it's original.

[Black Jack]

I have to agree with Mary on this one. I like his writing style and I think some of his work is pretty good but its not that original in content. Not as original lets say as Matt Furey trying to pass off the Farmer Burns mail order course as a long lost primordial supersecret of kicking ass and taking names which he himself brought back from the dust.

When you can get it free on the net.

[rogue]

Black Jack you are one tough mother calling Prankster a Mary. You have huge juevos my friend.

Maybe it's not original but there are still a lot of people out there fantasizing about being super deadly commandos and ultimate fighters. All of course without entering a tourny or joining the military.

Until now I have tried to present a substantiated and reasoned argument about both sides of the problem. And when it comes to the business of martial arts and fighting, the old saw about "there wouldn't be prostitutes...," really applies. There are indeed two sides to the problem. First are the people who are selling myth of the martial arts as ways to become a "warrior" or "the ultimate streetfighter. Second are the people who want it to be about fighting in order to fill a missing "something" within themselves or rewrite history. And quite honestly a whole lot of the behaviors out there on both sides are beyond the simply neurotic, and extend into megalomaniacal, cultish, criminal and even into the downright pathological.

Seen that and tiptoed around the rim of that hole myself.

[Black Jack]

Rogue don't get my wrong. I like reading his early work but the content is not just confined to him. I think he has the ability to convey in layman speak a lot of excellent information.

I also like the works of Rex Applegate, Jeff Cooper, Bradley Steiner, Massad Ayoob, Geoff Thompson, Kelly McCann, Jerry VanCook and Peyton Quinn for that type of info.

[Merryprankster]

BJ (hey, if you're gonna call me Mary)

I agree. I look at it like I look at the Matrix series--brings basic philosophy to the masses in a way that is easily grasped. Not original in content but at least interesting in presentation. And presentation matters.

I do get tired of people going "WOW!!!! This is so NEW and interesting." I just don't think it's worth that. (Both matrix and and MacYoung)

[Laughing Cow]

Have to agree with MP.

Nothing new about the Matrix of MacYoung, but it still feels good to see your own thoughts echoed by a recognised name.
Matrix reloaded sounds like more classic SF movies & stories mixed up.
Anybody remember "Total Recall" and it's sense of what is real or not.

Guess if I said the same think as MacYoung on a BBS I would get booed.

[Merryprankster]

The Matrix Reloaded wasn't bad--I think it's probably just a segue into the third movie. The one thing I had a beef with was that the end of the flick, they start talking about the Matrix and how when it was perfect, people rejected it completely, so they designed a Matrix that was imperfect and it was accepted by over 99% of the inhabitants. Neo is the result of equations that don't balance. The insinuation is that the Matrix cannot cope with choice, and that free exercise of same has a cascade effect that destroys the mathematical integrity of the Matrix. I think it harkens back to Asimov's Psychohistory a bit.

It's an "x" factor, so to speak. Anyway, as we know, real math doesn't work that way. If the Matrix is a mathematical representation of physical reality (in the sense that the laws of physics are all the same), then these uncertainties are part of the warp and woof of the Matrix. Ergo, choice, and the unpredictability of human nature would fall within that statistical fuzz. Shouldn't be a problem for a hyperadvanced race of AI. It ties in with Cosmology right there--basically, under classical physics, if you knew enough about the Universe you could tell me everything that had happenned and what was going to happen. quantum physics pretty much tells you that certain things are fundamentally unknowable and that the universe is a statistical relationship.

So, the Matrix would have to take that into account to function and it doesn't make sense that Neo would exist at all, at least, not for the reasons outlined.

[rogue]

I'll be right back, let me see what MacYoung or Tony Blauer says about the Matrix....

[Black Jack]

Actually I was typing so fast I spelled your name out Mary instead of Merry. Kinda funny though now that I think about it in context to how I put that sentance.

Their are also a lot of guys out their who do reality self defense books and courses that for the life of me I can not figure out their qualifications?

Meaning I get more interested in those people with a solid law enforcement background, military background or security background than some guy who says he has been their and done that.

Which may be all true and good. Just stating preferences.