
Originally Posted by
Garland
Ding! This is perhaps the most honest and straightforward post I've seen in a long time.
I do disagree with the arming thing, however, as impact weapons stuff can bring people together (look at the DBMA, it's essentially a fraternity of fighters, a straight up tribe that grows together), learning knife stuff is the same way- the Sayoc's sama samas are evidence of that, and most certainly shooting and firearm related activities can be fun for the whole family when you go hunting. Weapons are just tools, it's the mentality with which you use them that will make or break a decent perspective of the world. (i.e. you use a knife damn near every day to cut food, open packages, and so forth, learning how to use it for all it's utility is smart, and training knife work can be rewarding, but obsessing on killing is bad. Thinking about training progressions is fine, but dwelling on stabbing and slashing another human being is bad, although some (minute) amount of time must be spent preparing onesself for the realities of that possible (if not highly implausible) eventuality.
I get what you're getting at, though. I know several people involved in the martial arts or who collect firearms that go off the deep end with the survivialist mindset, or who seem to attract physical confrontation because of their fear of it. If you're a woman who has been assualted in the past and now train to hurt a potential rapist and train it zealously, there is a certain point where it is potentially retraumitizing and unknown men will immediatly be seen as not just as potential attackers, but as likely attackers...and as a result, they end up hospitalizing people. They never gain confidence, no matter how good they get, they just get more terrified because their world view is that of a mugger at every corner and a kidnapping at every curb.
Martial arts shouldn't be this way, though, and good instructors and good martial artists should be able to notice this happening in themselves, their peers, and their students, and do their best to hedge it off.
In short...I agree with you, and I ramble a bunch.
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