View Single Post
Old 10-22-2008, 12:23 PM   #22
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
United_States
Offline
Re: Shane, come back

Quote:
Marc Abrams wrote: View Post
People need to rethink how they are trying to discuss information. We can agree to disagree and still be civil.
I absolutely agree such a thing is possible, Marc, and my recommendation over and over again is to stick strictly to the issue. One of the problems I see often in Aikido is that "civil" often means "taking passive-aggressive shots under the guise of being aiki". In other words, I agree with your terms, but I think we have to be careful. "Civil" is often a code-word for "conform with the norm" and if you look at all the years that have been wasted when "civil" attempts were made to discuss these same "internal" concepts in the past, certainly a flag has to raise about why things never changed?

On the other hand, I personally dislike seeing so much personality injected into these discussions, so someone "outside" of Aikido isn't by default the smoothest way to go either. Incidentally, to answer the question of why I introduced "insider versus outsider" to the conversation, I'm simply acknowledging the theme implied in the header where "Shane" in the movie was an outsider and winds up leaving town at the end of the movie. "Shane, come back" was about the last line of the movie as Shane rode off from town and I assumed that was the reference.

Again, my major point has little to do with anything other than suggest that people who "have been training in these skills" in the last few years from Ushiro, Dan, Akuzawa, whatever, should be able to mount some pretty good discussions now. I don't think there's any necessity for vague and rambling maunderings from outside "experts" so much anymore. I.e., I'm encouraging Shane to keep on riding and let the townsfolk do more for themselves. Oddly enough, I remember a few years back there were some pointed discussions about too many conversations being herded by "outsiders" and now I think it really is time for the "people who actually do Aikido" to take it and run with it. I'd be happy to watch such conversations take place.

FWIW

Mike Sigman
  Reply With Quote