Do martial artists hate common folk?

[Bhassler]

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

At the most basic level, the only things that matter are eating and fucking. Everything else is trivial. Beyond that, it's just a matter of tolerance. Whether we draw the line at politics, economics, or celebrity hair styles is a matter of personal choice but fundamentally the same thing.

[Darthwing Teorist]

I don't hate common folk.

[BruceP]

I am common folk and I love to be hated by martial artists

[Darth Rock&Roll]

I can't find any hate anywhere on me. I'll try to develop some later in life.

[BonesCom]

Well I'm going to buck the trend: Yeah I hate stuff/people, just like I love stuff/people. I'm reminded of a quote by Marilyn Manson: "Mediocrity sucks. Things have to be really good or really bad, the stuff in the middle just sucks". I guess what I hate is ignorance (the type of arrogant ignorance you come across), in MA some people assume your primary motivation is to kick arse or to go MMA, or that you make wierd "hwa..." noises, or that you style is not as good as something they have actually heard of. It happens with me when I say I'm a scientist (especially when fuckwits start wanking on about genetic engineering and how it's bad) and people say "Oh but you would say that you're a scientist" when they actually don't know what that entails. Basically those people that have that smugness about them, you know, when you talking and they kind of say "yes yes" and roll eyes like they are the ones that really know the right stuff when they clearly haven't figured out that it's ME that knows everything
I guess I dislike common people because most of the time they just accept whatever they have been presented with, without critical evaluation, and lack the gumption to go out and investigate what else is out there, "Oh I'm going to yoga", "Oh I'm going to pilates", "Oh I'm going to tai chi shuan, that's the fighting one not the health one, apparently you can learn how to hurt people without touching them", "I've found a good wushu school". I think at the end of the day most of the people on this forum are not normal, which is proabably why I like it. Fuck off you common dorks I do the REAL stuff

[Daniel]

I think there´s a flaw with this whole thread. Why use the term "common folk" when you could use "plebs"? It´s much more highbrow and, you know, good breeding.


D.

Sarcasm. Oh yeah, like that´ll work.

[everything]

lol, there seems to be an underlying question of: are you an elitist or a populist? I guess for me it just depends. Sometimes the plebs should decide an issue. Sometimes some elite or elites should decide it. In US politics Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive Branch should balance each other... or so I've been told in elementary school. The internet conspiracy theories are far more interesting. As are the tall tales in CMA.

[everything]

or how about an elite who fools the plebs into believing he's a pleb based on his stupid sounding speech.

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right." <- hmm, kinda sounds like our BTDT debates

[Bhassler]

or how about an elite who fools the plebs into believing he's a pleb based on his stupid sounding speech.

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right." <- hmm, kinda sounds like our BTDT debates

Or kind of like our BTDT president....

[Darthwing Teorist]

Where is Steve James when you need him ?

[neijia_boxer]

Hate is a strong word and I am not a hater, i might dislike something, but even dorks and common folk can be cool in ways outside of martial arts.

If we look at my original post on the thread "why are CMA people generally dorks" the majority of the people I was talking about were striving for success in the competition field whether BJJ, Muay Thai, san shou, or forms competition. They had not done so due to whatever their belief system was. Those dorks had asked me for feedback or wanted to improve in one area or another, however they chose to remain where they were at. so basically "you can take a dork to water but you cant make him drink."

now for the people that actually moved on I have respect- i mean Sifu's daughter even moved on and upgraded to Muay thai for fitness and combat at loves it and says she is having time of her life and had to explain to her dad ," you guys just dont do that, and train hard. that is why i do it", others like myself and a select few are now competition in smokers and other events and doing well. Something our former Sifu just couldnt take us there.

So props to those who take a chance and try something new. commoners can do it for hobby, health, and endeavor to maintain tradition.

[Haoran]

Definately not hate but no longer have time for ppl who are on cloud 9. Example: last weekend I joined a "Wellness Meeting" with ppl who have good intentions but, one lady spent too much time (IMO) reading a poem about a diet. It's way too touchy feely for me. I tried to teach them some real exercises or at least give them an introduction to the Chinese side of things and it was (deer in the headlights look) and then they went for a walk in the park. Like I said, fine for them but I no longer have time for it.

Now I have a better understanding Yuan Fen 缘分 and the saying of Casting Pearls before the Swine.

[Darthwing Teorist]

http://www.answers.com/topic/buddha-3

"...
When these temptations proved inadequate, the devil switched to the subtle temptation of pride. Whispering in Siddhartha's ear, Mara congratulated him on his spiritual growth, telling him that his insights and dedication were too profound for normal people to understand and that it would be profitless to attempt to teach them to others.

Again, Siddhartha resisted. "

[johnrieber]

shirley maclaine-style taiji cracks me up as much as it cracks up anyone, i guess. to swipe dr. painter's phrase.

but in terms of any kind of contact, you can learn something from anyone, if you're of a mind to. pushing hands with people who don't do formal/stylized push-hands is a good example. they'll surprise you.

any kind of arrogance is an invitation to an ass-whipping. it'll catch up with you when you ain't expecting it.

[Formosa Neijia]

Perhaps hate is a strong word but I definitely see a lot of contempt for people that aren't into fighting or who practice for health and wellness. I think it comes through pretty loud and clear on most MA message boards.

Is part of that contempt cultural in nature?

Look at these pics I posted again:

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?

In the "dork" thread there were a couple of pics posted of Westerners in funny taichi positions and the implication was that they were dorks. I've also seen it mentioned many times that wearing Chinese-y kungfu suits is akin to LARPing or role-playing. And yet, most everyone in China and Taiwan practices such "dorky" taichi in those kind of "costumes." So why isn't that kind of practice seen as authentic?

Why the double standard? Why in the West are such people seen as not having valid practices when that's how most everyone in Asia practices?


Let me stir the pot even more. I know people that have done CIMA in full-contact matches here in Taiwan. As far as I can tell, they would never, ever look down on the old people in the park who do the "dorky" taichi in silks. In fact, in some cases there seems to be an awareness that the full-contact people will be doing exactly that some day. But I never heard one of them say that the old people had invalid practices.

So why the disparity? Are the people in the top three pics above somehow right and the people in the bottom pic somehow wrong?

Dave C.