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Old 11-09-2012, 08:59 AM   #5
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Re: The Fear of Power

Quote:
David Orange wrote: View Post
Aikido has done a strange thing to its students' minds. It has given them a sense of great power, yet it has made them afraid of power. It's so strange to see people deride the quest to attain power, knowing that they, themselves, are actually motivated by the images of Morihei Ueshiba's incredible power. Why else would they train in aikido?
Well...this is the premise of your argument, that aikido students are so motivated, prima facie. If you're unwilling to entertain the possibility that at least some aikido students are not so motivated, there really isn't any basis for discussion, is there? It's not that hard to build an airtight case if you can dictate the premise. But is it a castle built on sand?

I'm not trying to derail your thread, and I'll step out of it at this point, because clearly it's not something I can speak to. Nevertheless, all your "you have tos" and "you need tos" derive from a different truth than mine. In your world, all aikido students are either consciously seeking power, or are deluding themselves that they aren't (somehow struggling and failing to be anti-power, whatever). Could it not be that you're oversimplifying things into a single dimension, a linear spectrum in which everyone is somewhere along the "power" line...and that the reality of human motivations is more complex than that?
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