Do martial artists hate common folk?

[Formosa Neijia]

This occurred to me in the "dork" thread. Do martial artists hate common people? Why?

If someone is teaching, then I can understand to some extent critiquing them and their pictures. After all, teachers should hold themselves to higher standards even if one person's standards aren't another's.

But does every single person have to be obsessed with martial arts for their practice to be valid? Do people have to be obsessed with making it to the Octagon to not be considered dorks?

Why do we martial artists so often look down on people that just want to get healthy and ....gasp.....enjoy themselves?

Dave C.

[johnrieber]

umm...i reckon that a fair number of good martial artists, or at least sincere ones, became martial artists to protect 'common folk'. what happens after that? goes all over the place.

martial artists do tend to feel like people who aren't tuned into the whole danger/fighting-if-you-have-to worldview are missing out on a significant dimension of reality, and may be kind of clueless. but that's a far cry from hate.

[everything]

i think people look down on people for being dorky, regardless of the area, martial arts, comics, tech stuff. i'm sure plenty of people thought larry page and sergey brin were dorky. who's laughing now, i suppose.

it's ok to be a dork, a regular person, or a fanatic, and just want health and fun imo.

[klonk]

Well... Some folks are contemptuous of martial art elitists, odd as that may sound. File it under "Strange But True."

I'll be interested to see where this thread goes.

[Chris McKinley]

For me, it's all about ponying up. If you are honest about what you are in it for, and also just as honest about what your practice is actually providing, then I really don't have anything left to criticize. Given that so few people seem to traffic in honesty in those two areas, there's still plenty to whine and bitch about for some time to come.

[Formosa Neijia]

Well... Some folks are contemptuous of martial art elitists, odd as that may sound. File it under "Strange But True."

Haha. Guilty as charged.

But consider this. Are these people dorks?


How about these people?



And these?


All those pics are from China or Taiwan. Most of them don't have good form, do taichi for health, and wouldn't be able to fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Most of them have never heard of the UFC. They would never be considered dorks here. Is their practice invalid? Many of them are wearing traditional Chinese dress so are they LARPing or role-playing?

So what about these guys?


I think there's something more going on here. Just trying to discuss it.

Dave C.

[GrahamB]

You can flip this cultural stuff around you know.

Do you consider these people dorks?



Chinese punks.



Japanese Elvis

[Strange]

her her her

[Daniel]

Well, humans always divide reality into compartments. We´re programmed that way for easier survival. It goes into everything we do and all aspects of our lives. If taken to an extreme, it´s either trained to be very cleaned up (Dalai Lama) or trained to collapse (terrorist fundamentalists, "I am right, therefore you are wrong".).

It also cuts the other way around: I have met quite a lot of hostility and outright prejudice from "normal" (non-Ma) people against me, just from them knowing I did MA of any kind ("It´s violence, Edna, violence, I tell you."). Re John´s comment, I am definitly in MA partially to protect people, and have done so actively on a volunteer basis as well as professional, for almost twenty years. Over that time I have (thank god) expanded my skill-base to include being a much more complex sheepdog than "just" a physical MA one.

Funny though, people who "dislike" MA don´t dislike practitioners of it quite as much when their saving their life...strange.

There is also the trauma bond, the emotional security and link that you make with people who have been through the same life-threatening events, or perceived ones. Martial artists links to martial artist against "outside threat". Another interesting thread would be discussing the huge, no let´s repeat that, the HUGE amount of fear that most martial artists start out with...and sometimes keep deep in their system even after training for thirty years.

But I´m afraid that thread might be a bit too scary.



D.

Sarcasm. Oh yeah, like that´ll work.

[GrahamB]

For me, it's all about ponying up. If you are honest about what you are in it for, and also just as honest about what your practice is actually providing, then I really don't have anything left to criticize. Given that so few people seem to traffic in honesty in those two areas, there's still plenty to whine and bitch about for some time to come.

Here's Chris on a weekend.

[Formosa Neijia]

Let's stay on topic please. Any other thought on the topic?

Dave C.

[mrtoes]

The people I practise with are normal people, who happen to do martial arts, albeit for a variety of reasons. I've checked out a lot of schools around where I live and I just see ordinary peeps who happen to love what they are doing. I don't see the point in making ourselves apart from other people merely because of our choice of interests - The modern world is already beset by cults of one kind or another and people who think they're special because of XYZ, I'm not sure we need an us and them mentality with MA. And I'm not sure I see it. Maybe it's just where I live, London is one big melting pot.

Dave, I suspect I'm maybe missing something with your question...

[yusuf]

hi

The original question. I can;t speak for anyone else but myself, I don;t hate common folks.

but..

But it does irritate me when people talk about trivial nonsense as if it is the most important thing, life or death. Oo i can't believe taht Sahron got her hair dyed blue, oh isn;t the end of the world.


I get confused as to why most people ignore the potential for development that lies within all of us, physical, spiritual etc etc. People who bluster about being fighters, throw a punch, and then complain when you fight back get my goat. New agers talkign about energy make me wish I was back in some frontier country wher i could chop them up and use the dried vegetarian corpse for fuel. I hate it that people ahve completely lost spatial awareness, and the concept of personal space. I don't want to fukkin hear your fukkin music you bastards.


Many other things too. But no, i am not angry and i do not hate...

yusuf

[canard]

it does irritate me when people talk about trivial nonsense as if it is the most important thing, life or death.

why?

and....I'm sure there's a nice tale out there somewhere in some tradition or another about everything being equally important and unimportant......but i'm not widely read

[Bhassler]

A couple of thoughts:

1. How much of what we read here is indicative of personality and how much is indicative of internet persona? There have been a number of examples over the years (sometimes with the same person over and over again) on the old eF/RSF of people who are asses online and cool guys in person. Things change without live human contact, both for those who want to put their stuff on the ether and those who choose to critique it.

2. Perception of what a martial art is ties very closely to the self-constructed identity of the artist, particularly for those who practice very seriously over a long period of time. So a stereotypical hippy tai chi guy might resonate with the idea of harmony and use of skill and strategic intelligence to overcome strength, whereas a stereotypical meathead MMA guy might resonate with the idea of no-nonsense hard work and intelligent science to acheive an end. Both guys value intelligence in their training, but they have very different notions of what that means. The threat comes not from people who do something totally different, but from those who do something similar enough that an outsider might say they're the same thing and thereby compromise the identity of one or both.