Kevin Wilbanks

I would apply the same objections to reductionism to Dobson's statement. I don't think it's true as a blanket statement, but I like the fact that he said it. I think fear of being victimized by someone else is definitely among the main motivations behind peoples' interest in martial arts.

In the US, this kind of fear is wildly exaggerated for many people. Fear of crime is a major cornerstone of our culture - the subject of innumerable movies, tv shows, and political campaigns, and of course now we're moving on to terrorism. Statistically speaking, if our fears were rationally based on the actual odds of suffering horribly or dying most of us would live in fear of smoking cigarettes and overeating. Then we'd move on to environmental toxins and clumsy behavior around the house... there would barely be room on our fear roster for worrying about getting jumped by thugs in the street, and getting killed in a terrorist attack would rank somewhere down near getting hit by a meteor.