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Old 12-12-2010, 07:44 AM   #4
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
United_States
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Re: Tales and Phantasies of Aikibunny

"Aikibunny" is obviously a stereotype. Like all stereotypes, it has its origin in truth, or at least partial truths, and like all stereotypes, it eventually outlives its usefulness. When we're trying to understand something complex (in this case, other people's approach to aikido), we generalize and simplify so we can start to wrap our minds around it. There's nothing wrong with these as initial steps towards understanding...but we have to be willing to take it beyond that, to fill in the details that are omitted or overlooked in our first simple picture. If we fail to do so, our generalization becomes a stereotype, with as much falsehood as truth in it, and our simple understanding becomes instead simplistic, omitting the inconvenient facts that don't fit our nice neat picture.
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