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Old 06-16-2005, 08:48 PM   #21
Misogi-no-Gyo
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 498
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Re: Steven Seagal Interview

Quote:
Christopher Li wrote:
Hmm, I'm not sure how I'm improving myself if I ask a question about, say, Yoshimitsu Yamada, on an internet forum. I'm pretty sure, however, that I could do so without being put in a "ding-dong" category for not calling him up at home and asking him when his his birthday is.

Best,

Chris
Hi Chris,

I don't think your question is invalid, in the least. Again, I am not putting anyone in any category. I just took the liberty of assigning the categories based upon what I have observed over the years. As it goes, people simply put themselves in the category via their own actions. Some of my own students have certainly asked some doozies over the years, and I have given them some interesting looks in return so it appears that no one is really immune.

Wondering why people put so much stock in nattering (contributing to gossip when one has no dog in the fight) is simply my own pet peeve. I just prefer to see people focus that energy somewhere else where it might actually amount to something positive. It seems as thought there are few takers, though.

Taking nothing away from any aikido shihan whose birthday you care to know, although contemporaries in some respects, I don't believe the two are equals on all fronts. Last time I checked, and it wasn't too long ago, the lambasting of said particular shihan was met with a completely negative reaction and the thread being pulled from three major websites - and what I posted was based upon my own personal experience, as opposed to some Ding Dong nattering on about miscellaneous crap they took to be important via some lame-ass internet search they did over a cheap bottle of chardonnay. Yet over and over and over, the negativity with regards to Seagal Sensei is not only permitted, but contributed to by other well-know aikido Senseis who, low and behold have incorrect information they continue to disseminate regardless of the fact they don't know what the heck they are talking about. Well, their credibility goes out the window in my book, but I guess it is okay with them because no one really cares about that when they take Seagal Sensei's credibility and trash it for their own begrudged purpose.

If you have the time to do the research, take a look back at most of the negative Seagal Sensei threads over the past few years and I'm sure you will find that there are four or five of the same individuals who always feel the need to post incorrect information, or reiterate veiled commentary based upon inaccuracies about topics about which they have no real concept of truth. I could list these people, but hey - you already know who they are so I don't see the point.

Come the day when Matsuoka Sensei writes a tell-all book from his perspective about all the negative things he experienced under his Master for over 25 years, and I give everyone else a pass when it comes to slinging their own version of B.S. Of course, since Matsuoka Sensei, the one person who certainly has garnered the right to write such a story would rather have his veins pulled out one by one through his nostrils while still alive than write such trivial bull$hiit, no one gets such a pass while I still have a candle burning. Truth be known, if you asked Matsuoka Sensei about it all - and I have, if he added up the columns of positive and negative things he experienced under Seagal Sensei which column's total would outweigh the other, I think the answer might surprise many people - that should he have the chance to, he wouldn't have changed a thing.

In the meantime, I'll keep holding my breath waiting for all the B.S. people drone on and on about to stop. You'll find me in the dojo working on my kokyu waza, or doing misogi. As for the time it takes for me to write these posts, well you can call me Sisyphus, I know, I know but it is really my own personal hell, a shugyo-based misogi purifying the web message boards of the miscellaneous dirt one can find there on any given day. At least I know that I'll have something to do for a long time coming.

I would recommend that those with minor curiosities or major axes to grind do the same, but somehow I know that I can count on one hand the months (weeks, days or minutes, really) before some Ding Dong (YES, those Dobule D's are capital and are synonymous with BOOB) shows up somewhere, sometime soon, infallible internet research in hand, and blathers on about something they haven't a clue about. Care to count with me…?



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I no longer participate in or read the discussion forums here on AikiWeb due to the unfair and uneven treatment of people by the owner/administrator.
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