Hi, I'm Bob Gorman

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[BobGorman]

I've been studying Aikido for over 50 years. What attracts me to it is the 'ethical' position of protecting the aggressor. This IS the long term solution to violence. When you don't protect the aggressor, you create, unless you kill them, someone who lies in wait for the day when they can & WILL retaliate.

While I have over 30 Aikido books, my absolutely all time favorite is:
Aikido and the dynamic Sphere: An Illustrated Introduction by Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti. It contains, in my mind the finest graphical discussion of the ethics of combat, which I've forwarded on to many psychological groups, who struggle daily with personal violence.

Also, it illustrates the techniques in the way that my particular learning style needs, namely energy diagrams. I'm absolutely delighted that is has now come out in a paperback edition, making it available to many more individuals.

But all of this leaves me a bit cold.
If we can put a man on the moon and safely return him to earth we CAN eliminate mental illness as we know it. But first, we must really WANT to do it, just as in Aikido, we must really want to protect the aggressor. And as Aikido points out in addition to WANTing to eliminate it we need the precise techniques to do so. If an attack comes from the right, left, or center, AND above, below, or center we need to respond precisely to that specific attack. The same is true of mental, emotional, and verbal attacks; our response must precisely match the attack!

I Posted this to a psychology forum:
Perhaps even before Aikido, which is an excellent non-violent way to defend yourself when attacked, there is another author who, in my opinion, is even more outspoken on early detection and deflection of escalating violence. Her name is Suzette Haden Elgin, PhD, and she's written a whole series of books on: How Verbal Self-Defense Works. A short but good intro, with a list of books is at:
http://people.howstuffworks.com/vsd.htm

Since the book I really want to read is not out there, perhaps I will need to write it myself.

Also, a personal concern.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. I spent my whole life, 66 years, here but I'm concerned that the people who I love have lost their way. About 1/2 of the people believe we can confront violence by hiding, by 'talking' to people whose whole history is to lie. This is not the way of the Warrior.

Our freedoms have been nibbled away.

My own thoughts about the sequential buildup of violent impulses and my first crack at defining a Violence Escalation Scale or Chain is on my website at:
http://www.kncell.org/VIPC.html

Bob

[akiy]

Hi Bob,

Welcome to AikiWeb and thank you for your introduction.

-- Jun

[Michael Douglas]

I thought this was 'Dave Gorman', so I clicked to the threads.
Hi Bob.

You said ;
If we can put a man on the moon and safely return him to earth we CAN eliminate mental illness as we know it.
Hardly. What's a rocket got to do with eliminating mental illness?

... Aikido, which is an excellent non-violent way to defend yourself when attacked,
Can you prove that?
In my opinion aikido is a rather violent way to defend yourself.
Smack'em, break a limb, dump them on their head. Awful.

[jeffmaley]

Hi, Bob. I have the same book you mention, Aikido and the Dynamic Spere. I concur; it seems a fine tome and now that i'm practicing in a dojo, it certainly makes a lot more sense!

[Don]

Wow 50 years of aikido. Who have you studied with? That would mean you started studying aikido in 1958. Where in NYC was there aikido that early?