“The Universe is under no obligation to be ‘understandable’ to us”
Michio Kaku
“Authority Validation”
Among martial artists, linage is important. Each branch of the Art carefully traces its current curriculum back, sometimes through centuries, to its (often mystical) Founders. “Purity,” thus becomes an obsession with many. When teaching, instructors often refer to their linage as validation of their authority. “Evolution” is often eschewed.
In our branch of the Art, Defensive Small Arms, linage is far more historically compressed, and evolution far more tumultuous (yet generally accepted) by modern practitioners.
This free-flowing phylogeny has both strengths and weaknesses!
New ideas and methods are usually given a fair hearing, but the vast majority demonstrate themselves to be fabricated nonsense and represent little more than lower-ranking instructors, armed with only partial evidence (but absolute conviction) attempting to manufacture an instant reputation for themselves and “get noticed.” One can only wonder why, as there is scant “fame and fortune” in this chosen vocation!
Accordingly, so much of what passes for “expertise” is just pretending. When pretenders are asked for a definitive explanation, they immediately retreat into confusing jargon, rambling babble. By contrast, the most seasoned and accomplished instructors aren’t afraid to say to their students, “I can tell you what works and what doesn’t, but I’m not always prepared to tell you why”
“Evolution” is defined as “survival of the fittest.” Authentic evolution is always a “rocky road,” and bona fide practitioners of our Art are thus unavoidably “restless,” and in addition, audacious, unafraid of failure. Our understanding is never complete. Our tuition is never paid in full. Our Quest never ends!
Ultimately, the goal of student and instructor is always the same:
The improvement of the student, and the legitimate advancement of our Art.
“Authority Validation” is not required!
“Personal growth is not about ‘being right.’ It’s about being a little less wrong than we were yesterday.
I’d rather have questions I can’t answer, than answers I can’t question.
Be terrified of ‘certainty!’ Intelligence does not protect us from self-deception. Though we are loath to admit it, even now our understanding of reality is grossly incomplete. Uncomfortable curiosity never ends, nor should it.
Uncertainty is not a prison. It’s an invitation”
Feynman
/John
