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Old 02-15-2005, 03:13 AM   #61
Wynand van Dyk
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 16
South Africa
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Re: Competition in Aikido

Quote:
Ian Hurst wrote:
I wouldn't dismiss you as a troll, but I will accuse you of selective reading. My reading of the consensus views espoused in this thread are fairly positive in favour of competition if that's what you wish to follow. I don't believe anyone has said competition is worthless, just often not what they're after themselves.
I covered that and acknowledged people who do Aikido for reasons other than mine. I have no problem with these people but I dont want their training goals to dictate what is getting taught. If more people were interested in the martial aspects as opposed to the hokey new-agey "healing" aspects of Tai Chi it might still be a respectable martial art.

Quote:
As for your "survival of the fittest" remark, this is normally applied to a species as a whole rather than individuals, so doesn't really apply. Indeed, if you check the mortality rates of any "civilized frontier" in history, you may well be amazed at which groups were the true survivors (hint - women with children score rather highly).
You did not understand my use of the phrase. I used it as a lead in to that paragraph, to establish a common point of reference (obviously, in your case, I failed or maybe you attached some personal, emotional meaning to the phrase causing it to stand out for you). In any case, your point on women with children having high survival rates is mostly due to the sociological makeup of the group, whereby these people are given priority in times of crises at the cost of other members of the group, Its hard to imagine that you meant that women with children are better able to hunt and provide food for themselves or that they are better able to defend themselves against predators. However, you cannot argue that definite heirarchies are NOT established in almost every human endeavour. You just have to observe the sandpit at a kindergarten to see what I mean.
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