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Guillaume Erard wrote:
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Very well written and an overall thorough view of the declined state of violence (not counting war and armed conflict of course). As a sociologist I'm interested in this issue.
Your statistics seem persuasive although I haven't checked the source (just my annoying habit ^^) I do agree with you that violence is becoming less and less VISIBLE, which is exactly the point we're missing here.
Just because we don't see something, doesn't mean that it does not exist. That's why I started the thread. I know there's violence out there, but I personally haven't seen it.
We know that a lot of crimes go unreported, especially domestic and sexual violence crimes. I can't recall the data, but about half the victims of sexual assault do not report it. Similarly with domestic violence. Not counting the types of crimes that police "allows" in some certain areas, but that's not a topic to be discussed here.
I think it's exactly here that Aikido falls in. Well, the most basic and most underrated attack against women is a slap -Yokomenuchi!!!!!!! Or dragging her to a hidden place to commit rape etc. That's katatori and katatetori right there.
But I think overall it's the idea of situational awareness that Aikido promotes. Don't go out alone to the club... Don't go to a date with a stranger in an unpopulated area etc. And seriously, be NICE to people! Most people I meet out there are really nice, unless you are staring them down like breakfast. All of that is the spirit of Aikido that I think O'Sensei wanted to promote.
Overall I agree with you, we live in a safer world today and unless we go out to look for violence, violence won't find us.
Oh yes, next time I fall off my bike in an accident I'll thanks the ancestors I can take ukemi ^^.