Experimental short digest post.

A series of mini posts on quick themes.

A new format intended to avoid putting too much of a stretch on reader’s concentration span.

In this post:

· ‘Fighting for peace, is like screwing for virginity’.

· Trends in martial arts.

· The monetising of martial arts kit.

‘Fighting for peace, is like screwing for virginity’.

A quote from George Carlin.

Don’t you just love those ‘I’d sooner be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war’ quotes?

I think I might have mentioned before about all of these ‘warrior’ motivational memes; I am not a fan. It’s usually the kind off guff spouted by warrior fantasists; people who have never experienced violence and can’t wait for the Zombie Apocalypse, so they can ‘do their thang’.

But realistically, I get it; there’s soft power and hard power. When negotiating in any situation, international or domestic, you have to be clear about your bargaining chips and how you present them.

Theodore Roosevelt used the phrase, “Speak softly but carry a big stick”.

Kaishu Katsu, the great Japanese hero and father of the Japanese navy is supposed to have walked into negotiations carrying his sword in plain sight. This means that you are communicating clearly, but subtly, that you have ‘options’. Better that, than supplication, grovelling and rolling over pleading for mercy. The dignity and nobility remain intact.

A young Kaishu Katsu.

Whether you are a fan or not, even controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan B. Peterson said that serious martial artists give off an aura of the potential for power through fierceness, the sword left in its sheath, the choice to go down particular pathways, and still choose the preferred route of peaceful negotiation.

It is possible to fight for peace… but as for screwing for the cause of virginity, I am not so sure.

Trends in martial arts.

I have been around long enough to see the new best thing spring up across the decades. Some are here today gone tomorrow; others limp along and suffer at the hands of public fickleness the way many martial arts currently do.

First of all; in the 70’s, it was kickboxing, or ‘full contact karate’. Names like Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace and Benny ‘the Jet’ Urquidez became famous overnight. Initially, Trad karate people saw this as a bit of a challenge, but it was to latter morph into something else.

Then we had the Ninja boom. It started with magazine articles on ‘the last Ninja’ Hatsumi Masaaki, then American marketing got involved through Stephen K. Hayes. Whatever you think about the Ninja, or just who exactly was the ‘last Ninja’, for a while it was a thing. I remember jokes going around at the time, ‘Someone told me that a new ninjutsu club has opened up, but, being masters of invisibility, nobody can find it’.

A little later came along American style point fighting with a kind of clicker system, including an established circuit and seeding of winners, but again, it ended up blowing in the wind.

New kids on the block emerged out of the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Challenge, this was MMA and BJJ. Still around (for the moment), but critics are saying that it’s looking very much like a ‘bro culture’ thing. It’s certainly given a boost to male grooming and body hair removal. Without a doubt, it was the MMA that absorbed the falling-off of kickboxing. Certainly, it is with the zeitgeist, a reflection of ‘us’ at the moment (worthy of a post in itself).

What will be next?

Who can tell.

The monetising of martial arts kit.

Two sets of armour, really?

It used to be that karate training was one of the cheapest activities to get involved with. There were only limited opportunities for money to be leeched away from the punters. The general points of financial obligation were licences, gradings and keikogi. The first two tended to be fixed and the keikogi… well, you could pay what you wanted.

Match that up with other sports like skiing and golf and there’s a world of difference.

In the world of tech selling, there’s a term which describes the process whereby you initially get the product for free, then the quality goes down and charges get introduced by stealth, it’s part of what Cory Doctorow calls ‘Enshitification’. Streaming platforms are prime examples.

The judo guys pulled off the first coup in the year 2000, by insisting that judo players have to compete in blue and white keikogi. Overnight this doubled the profits for companies making the keikogi. This was justified in terms of ‘visual clarity’ for both the referees and spectators. On this one, I have an internal clash between the cynic in me and my design sensibilities.

Then karate got in on the game, which really got my radar twitching; an insistence on blue mitts and red mitts. Again, this increased the profits of the companies selling kit.

I can’t wait for the Kendo Federation to get in on the same scam; their kit is expensive and bulky enough without having to double it up (one set of blue Bogu, one red). And, in terms of visual clarity, who the heck can tell who’s who in any case?