Alec Corper

Hello Christian,
I completely agree with your post, in the spirit of respect and compassion, with one small caveat. I think there are certain activites which by their very nature must lead to scrutiny and questioning. Being a martial arts instructor is one of them. If you teach people something which is supposed to be effective self defense but , in reality, you made it up to suit your own fantasies, then somebody needs to call you to account. After all isn't somebody else's health and safety more important than my self image. Having my ego punctured is less permanent than brain damage.
I have hardly posted over the last few years and the last months have reminded me why. We would probably all be more civil on the mat but wether that would be fear or respect I'm not sure. Speaking only from personal experience, which is always right, no matter how wrong ;-), I have found more civility and respect amongst the "rougher" world of applied combat practitioners than generally in the Aikido world. I have met a lot of good and friendly people in Aikido the last 20 years, but the tough love of respect seems to hard to find.