People often pursue martial arts and self defense training with the assumption that the objective is to do physical harm to ones enemies. While harm may necessarily come to ones enemy in the line of self defense, such an outcome should be considered to be a suboptimal result, rather than a goal.
This is not to advocate passivism. Quite to the contrary, this is to empower morally sound people with the ethical basis for empowered action.
On some level, most people are aware of the dissonance inherent to inculcating oneself into a mindset of destruction and violence. Activities that involve fighting, hurting people, and role playing to such an effect are inherently antisocial. Healthy social interactions involve collaboration and honest debate, in pursuit of truth.
If you feel like you’re fighting, you’re probably losing.
In every other aspect of life, the purpose of education and training are to enable you to reach your desired outcome with the greatest efficiency and ease. We know that when we deal with other people, brute force, shouting, and attrition are not the most effective tactics, especially when we have ongoing relationships with the people we are dealing with. Moreover, a tendency to default to brute force implies that we have hit the ceiling (or basement) of our ability to communicate in a more effective way.
Self defense teachers like to use seductive language such as, “Do maximum damage and then get away as fast as possible.” That is one very narrow strategy that would be appropriate in a limited scope of scenarios. The “maximum damage” narrative is seductive because it is sensational and plays off of fear.
Consider that the vast majority of everyday scenarios are actually best resolved by doing the minimum amount of damage.
Conditioning your mind to go into a state of worst-case-scenario fight or flight, is the exact opposite of what you need in order to gain personal power and peace of mind.
I am well aware that there are maximum limits to my ability to bring positive resolutions to challenging situations. However, the very purpose of your training and education should be to raise your threshold of ability. True empowerment is to appreciate your ability to solve increasingly complex situations with grace.
Anyone can make a bad situation into a disaster. The art of joyful living is in transforming adversity into opportunity.
Ken Akiyama
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