Originally Posted by
Mas Judt
Historically, there has been great secrecy in CMA circles, with loyalty to your group being paramount. The extremes of this was usually found Southern China, where various 'sects' often had political and criminal agendas.
In today's world, there is so much information floating so freely, and a great many myths have been put to rest.
Things can be much more open. Take advantage of it. If it upsets your teachers, ask them why it upsets them. Try to understand where they are coming from, then decide for yourself what you want to do.
I couldn't agree more, like I posted earlier, we're not in China during the Opium Wars, and considering that only about 5% of the United States practice ANY martial art, I don't think there's any real danger to not keeping these so called "secrets" from the public. If anything, it's more likely to encourage new students to join.
What I've noticed (based on movies, books and the internet), was that these various schools competing with each other back in the day, were fighting for their very survival (territory, revenue, amenites from local shops, etc.), kinda like gangs are today in the U.S. Modern schools don't need to worry about that, we can buy our own food, shelter our own family and take care of ourselves outside the kwoon, so now whichever kwoon we go to for training, it's akin to going to a Crunch gym or the YMCA to work out. No need for secrets.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
- Aristotle
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke