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Old 08-20-2012, 12:06 PM   #109
Nicholas Eschenbruch
Dojo: TV Denzlingen
Location: Freiburg
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 323
Germany
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Re: Aikiweb as a "Big Tent"

Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote: View Post
...
The increasing polarization of Aikiweb over the past year or two with a predictable pattern of mutual ad hominem attacks and the breakdown of many threads has been bothering me a lot..
Quote:
Marc Abrams wrote: View Post

The most remarkable thing that most people do not want to face in this thread, is that those who typically give the "unsolicited advice and criticism" are the ones who also make genuine offers to respectfully "flesh-out" the ideas in some type of training experience.

I would suggest that wisdom and integrity should go hand in hand. Don't ask a question if you are not willing to hear an answer. Don't put your ideas out there in a thread and not expect to receive a myriad of opinions. The people who spend so much time on the Aikiweb complaining about the poor reception to their ideas, the "mean-spirit" of people's comments, the "unwillingness" of those "mean" people to fully understand and embrace their ideas, etc., are typically the ones who shy away from the natural consequence of putting ideas about martial arts out in the public = "SHOW ME!"

As much as both sides should show some respect and restraint in their comments and threads that they start, both sides should be also be willing to find some format to demonstrably put their ideas and beliefs about "martial arts" abilities, theories, understandings to the test. If a person is not willing to stand behind and up to their beliefs and ideas, then maybe, just maybe that person should show better restraint in starting threads and/or a "thicker skin" when the expected criticisms and unsolicited suggestions start arriving.

Marc Abrams
Hi Marc,
I think what you write is on some level true, and I deplore a lack of accountability in many aspects of aikido as well. But I think just calling people out for testing is not helpful considering the purpose of more constructive discourse.

For one, there is no inbuilt right to ask for a reality test in internet conversation on anybody's specific terms. That is just not part of the medium, and I doubt it will ever be. As a consequence, if somebody is deluded about what they do, well, all evidence will be interpreted that way. After all, we are not even sure these other people exist under the names they give here in many cases. So conversation that is just about calling people out to whatever reality test is unhelpful unless that person wanted somebody to. Repeating it n times is mostly pointless.

Second, I think talk about testing is really a veiled definition trap: what is tested, which rules, who is the judge, etc. We will not get any agreement. This is not MMA or power lifting.

Third, I think there are few, if any, people on the IS side - except Dan, who does not do aikido and does not intend to or want to do aikido either - who can yet walk the talk regarding the promises of IS. (You may be an exception, we have not met.) I hope that is going to change. But I think that a lot of zeal is invested into this debate that curiously implies to a bright IS future we imagine.

Best

Nicholas

Last edited by Nicholas Eschenbruch : 08-20-2012 at 12:09 PM. Reason: spelling
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