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Old 04-02-2013, 04:56 PM   #96
Erick Mead
 
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
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Re: how do we define martial?

Quote:
Kevin Leavitt wrote: View Post
Bernd, as a Military Strategist as a profession, I am I guess supposed to be a Clausewitz scholar. Hadn't really considered how Clausewitz applies with the study of budo.

War is diplomacy by other means....
Clausewitz talks alot about limited and unlimited war. I think maybe the Budoka would be concerned with understanding the instruments of war and how to appropriately and judiciously apply them.
or as it is said "politics by other means" ... which really means that diplomacy and politics are in some sense an illusion covering the more basic essence of conflicts.

In light of the mention of Clausewitz, I cannot recommend highly enough Rene Girard's latest work on mimetic theory and violence, which is focussed on Clausewitz and the inherent vulnerability to escalations ending int total war, which Clausewitz foresaw: "Battling to the End"

An article with some summary of its points by the author is found here -- and dwelling on the apocalyptic themes -- of man's own making -- which (to my reading) is very much in keeping with O Sensei's own thinking about the purpose of Aikido in helping people prevent the dynamic that leads to total mutual annihilation.

Quote:
What happens when we reach the extremes that Clausewitz glimpses before hiding them behind his strategic considerations? He does not tell us. This is the question we have to ask today. Clausewitz had a stunning intuition about history's suddenly accelerated course, but he immediately disguised it and tried to give his book the tone of a technical, scholarly treatise. We therefore have to complete Clausewitz by taking up the route he interrupted and following it to the end.
...
... he wrote in his first chapter: "War is an act of violence, which in its application knows no bounds; as one dictates the law to the other, there arises a sort of reciprocal action, which, in the conception, must lead to an extreme." Without realizing it, Clausewitz discovered not only the apocalyptic formula but also that it is bound up with mimetic rivalry. Where can this truth be understood in a world that continues to close its eyes to the incalculable consequences of mimetic rivalry? Not only was Clausewitz right, in opposition to Hegel and all modern wisdom, but what he was right about has terrible implications for humanity. This warmonger alone saw certain things.
To my mind, a grasp of Girard's observations about the deep mimetic nature of human psychology, and its irreducibly and recurrently violent core, are something that anyone who is serious about the problems of violence ought to be exposed to. A further reference source is here.

When O Sensei -- who was not a Christian -- spoke explicitly in terms of the Logos and St. Michael -- he was not just indulging the Japanese penchant for even-handed syncretism in religion -- he was making an profound point about the nature of violence -- which he in his practical way applied to address much the same concerns that Girard discovered in the structures of human social conflict laid out in dramatic works and that Clausewitz did in studying actual wars.

Quote:
"In the same spirit as the teachings of the Bible on the return of Michael (see Daniel, 12), all the three worlds will completely admire this Great Saint [Ame no Ukihashi] and follow his words with joy. We must endeavor to perform our assigned missions to lead others in welcoming such a wise, Great Saint."
Takemusu Aiki lectures, Morihei Ueshiba (Tr. Sonoko Tanaka)
For those who do not recall, Michael in Daniel 12 is related as the protector of the Chosen -- and who will serve defend them -- but only in the final battle. In other words, the spirit of Michael is analogized or identified with Ame no Ukihashi (the mission of Aikido), and which will serve to save them [us] -- from the final imitative escalation to mutual destruction, to which we are otherwise very likely to succumb.

Cordially,

Erick Mead
一隻狗可久里馬房但他也不是馬的.
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