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Old 09-28-2012, 05:56 PM   #42
Chris Li
 
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Dojo: Aikido Sangenkai
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Re: It Has to be Felt #0

Quote:
Ross Robertson wrote: View Post
However, I think it should be productive to ask if aikido training has anything to offer how we approach such differences. If, in the United States, Republicans and Democrats, or liberals and conservatives everywhere, could dialogue in aikido's particular brand of constructive adversity? Can we get fundamentalists and secularists to work together on worthy charitable causes?

The world and its many paths can get there without what we explicitly call "aikido." But if aikido does not actively and self-consciously participate in this social process -- not so much to take sides, but to bring factions together to make something larger and more coherent -- then I can't for the life of me see it as something to brag about.
So you're thinking of Aikido as a negotiation technique? Something along of Terry Dobson's "Giving in to get your way"?

Personally, I don't see much of a real track record for that in Aikido - not even from Morihei Ueshiba himself...

Best,

Chris

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