Aikido .... in three hundred years from now.

[bruceb]

Ok, what will Aikido like in three hundred years from now?

Will it evolve into a multicultural, mutinational art, or will it stay the same?

What I was really wondering was ..... say there are a number of teachers who finally surpass the founder, Morehei Ueshiba, will change and evolve Aikido into something else?

Remember, your dreams are only as distant as your imagination, it just takes reality a couple a thousand years to meet up with those dreams. Keep it real, that is to say, use the dreams of Worlds Fairs, for last 120 years, as a model for what is dreamed, as to what reality allows to come about. Temper your spectulations.

Will gadgetry and weapons make Aikido obsolete?

thanks.

[Julian Gerhart]

in all honesty this has got to be one of the most ridiculus things i have ever read. in no particular order I have these problems:

Aikido already is a multicultural, multinational art.

What exactly would surpassing O'sensei entail?

Aikido can not evolve into something else and still be Aikido. Aikido is what it is. If it evolved then it would be something else separate from Aikido.

if you are concerned with Aikido being made obsolete by newfangled weapons the you need to understand the fact that Aikido is not primarily about being able to throw someone across the room. Have you read "Aikido In Everyday Life" by Terry Dobson? maybe you should.

lastly it seems a little silly to me to guess at what anything will be like centuries from now. that being said...

i predict that in 200 years from now Aikido will have changed into an art primarily associated with the weaving of straw hats. The grand master of Aikido must always be named Hubert. begginer practitioners of Aikido will be required to master the art of belly dancing before they are allowed to weave the "sacred straw". upon the completion of each new hat the maker will retreat to southern north dakota for a weekend of "squirrel counting".

see what i mean. it could happen, i guess.

[StanLee]

Bruce,

I'm sorry but this has to be done; your thread is open to lots of jokes. So here's what I think aikido will be like in three centuries time...

Aikido practioners will have powers far surpassing ours. They fly around in jet packs practicing their aerial techniques. Everyone starts off with the title of soke (read the Kokon Ryu aikido thread!)

Uchi desi programmes would be reintroduced and summer camps will be held in floating cities miles off the earth's surface. Oh I would also be alive because in a freak accident, I was put in cryogenic stasis and awaken to find myself in this aikido paradise and be worshipped as practising the "old style"!;) ;) ;)

No, to be serious, who knows what will happen... because of the different styles and emphasis on training, aikido we know of may die out as it gets watered down, "cut and pasted" with other arts etc.

Stan:D

[Sillal]

Steven Segal will still be around, but now he will be an android whose brain was cryogenicaly frozen. We will all live in floating houses and be ruled by damned, dirty apes!!!!

[P Goldsbury]

I am curious that no one has come up the Matrix solution: we will be overwhelmed by computers and our aikido will become simply a sophisticated programme, devised by Doshu Smith. All the techniques will work and our training will always have a moral and spiritual dimension.

Is this because the Wachowski brothers do not really have a clue about the martial arts?

Mr Baker, I am also curious why you decided on 300 years, rather than, say, 500 or 50. If we take a generation as 25 years and apply this to the presentday Aikikai, in 2303 there will be the 15th Doshu, assuming that the Ueshiba family would have consistently been able to produce male heirs. This, by the way, would be an extremely rare feat and so perhaps should be discounted as a possibility.

You ask if there will be anyone whose skills surpass those of M Ueshiba. Of course. I can well envisage someone coming along who took a similar path to M Ueshiba and applied the same aikido principles, but in other ways. M Ueshiba cross-trained and used the weapons available to him at the time: sword, staff, knife, bayonet. Are we to say that aikido training is limited to attacks from these weapons?

Best regards,

[bruceb]

Aikido, once from Japanese roots, is adopted and changed into another version of martial arts, one that is now based in another country, with values of that country, not Japan.

I guess very few people consider the changes that people wish to happen, and the actual changes the occur with evolution of mechanization, and time for our society in the past two hundred years.

The average post, of that is ridiculus, or it has been done before, is the shallowness of merely considering fanstasy, not extrapolating the factual information of history verses projected fanatasy of what was supposed to come about in the future verses what has come about.

I guess, if none of you can think in those terms, you will forever be trapped in a quagmire of mediocracy, which is fine ... but I expected a bit more from the aikido community than that?

Ok ... what if North America broke off from Japan, started their own Aikido/ martial arts society, and, in time ... say three hundred years eclipsed the Japanese counterparts as the premier teaching center for martial arts. New set of customs, new set of parameters, new way to learn and practice. How about that?

New tools to learn hand to hand, new weapons to overcome, new way to think to protect yourself ... anyone up for the challenge?

[Russ Qurehsi]

Well, if you want to be serious Bruce. Your past actions dictate your present circumstances, therefore, your present actions will dictate your future circumstances. Aikido in the future will be shaped by the action YOU take this moment. Not the action your dojo, sensei or your governing organization take, but YOUR action.

That being said, get your ass on the mat, train vigorously and honestly and quit posting these silly questions.

Regards,

Russ

[mech]

300 years is too much even for any creative mind....

There will be political struggles between organitations and potencial markets for to capitalize

Some traditinal principles will survive

Men will continue to exploit other men and fighting each other for power, religion and for to controlling resources

or hecatombe happened and we will rebuilding the world

Humanity will continue to hate egolatry but will be still trapped

Probably there will be two main styles:


one exclusively for suvival (elements from all martial arts will be added)

and another one for health and spiritual grow


mech
manuel anderson

[Eric Joyce]

Lets just hope that 300 years from now that aikido holds true to it's principles and changes according with the times. No one knows exactly what the future holds, but I think it looks pretty good for Aikido. Now get on the mat and train :)

[bruceb]

That is about the most shallow excuse a human being can come up with .... it shows that the beastiality of the human race is superior to thought, and in exerting physicality, the answers to all things will be found.

Well, Eric Joyce, I am approaching the other end of training, and it is not all physical practice, but a mixture of thought, word, and deeds .... the second part of training that occurs when youth and vigor leave the body, and instead of using strength, finding a more efficient use of forces available is saught.

The eventual evolution of Aikido will diverge from its roots, and it will separate from its founders original path .... just how much it will change, adapt, and become so much more with an inclusion of the original training ... well ... it might take me a year of two to imagine it, but the thoughts will come, eventually.

Excuse me for thinking anyone else saw this change by examining the lessons of history already written and past .... I have given you all too much credit.

I guess, it is more appropriate to cause pain and embarrassment to teachers and students who think they are advanced in their level of training, or so it would seem by the lack of interest or interaction in postulating a theory about where Aikido might go? Back to the mat, eh? I can do that, but I won't.

It is not my time to bang the mat for endless hours, it is my time to analyze and come up with more efficient ways to train and gain.

Hey, you have your journey, I have mine.

Get an injury or an illness that keeps you off the mat for a year or more, and I will bet .... you come around to my way of thinking.

In the meantime, I am going to think about this title, "Aikido three hundred years from now" and come up with a few ideas on where it might go .... offline that is.

[Russ Qurehsi]

:D "That is about the most shallow excuse a human being can come up with....." HAR! Bruce, it's not an excuse, it's a suggestion.

That being said, my point is not "..just train hard and the answers will come to you..." never said that. My point is that any effect on the future will depend on your action in the moment. To me, training vigorously and honestly in this moment will be an action that will, most likely, have a positive result for the future of aikido.

Perhaps I was a bit patronizing in the tone of my last post Bruce. I did not intend to insult you. Just some good natured ribbing from one practitioner to another.

Cheers,

Russ

[Aiki-Wacky]

Aikido is a living art. change is a good thing. we will always love. Harmony gives something more to life, than it has ever taken away.

But if we ever learn to grow a third arm in 300 years?Ikkyo just might change somewhat, but i bet they will have a blast with ude kime nage.

I for one love the thought that Aikido is not just the moves, but moves all of us.





It´s Alive(jean wilder in young frankenstein)(just a little humor an the side.)

Douglas

[George Ledyard]

Originally posted by bruceb
I guess, if none of you can think in those terms, you will forever be trapped in a quagmire of mediocracy, which is fine ... but I expected a bit more from the aikido community than that?

Bruce, I must say you have enriched my world with this post. I am referring to your use of the term "mediocracy". This is a truely wonderful word, in my opinion.

The defintion of meritocracy is as follows:
mer·i·toc·ra·cy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mr-tkr-s)
n. pl. mer·i·toc·ra·cies

A system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement.

A group of leaders or officeholders selected on the basis of individual ability or achievement.
Leadership by such a group.

So I am assuming that a mediocracy is:

A system in which advancement is based on complete lack of any exceptional talent or substantial achievement.

A group of leaders or officeholders selected on the basis of complete lack of any exceptional talent or substantial achievement.
Leadership by such a group.

Anyway, I loved it. I'll have to keep my eye out for an opportunity to use it someplace...

[gmellis]

Aikido will become like the Royal Ballet, and people will throw each other around and do all sorts of acrobatics to some kick-ass house and techno mucis with light shows and fog machines and a little Super Kabuki worked in for good measure.

[D.Kaiser]

If one looks at the martial systems from 1600-1700 Japan, Korea, and China we see that most did not survive the last 300 years. Maybe Aikido will become something else, undistinguishable from its present state, as society changes. Maybe they will all be wearing red uniforms and by then there will be a higher rank than Soke or Grandmaster.

[bruceb]

Meritocracy ....

Hummmm .....

It sure sounds like a good word to replace ...... testing for rank.

Promotion in rank because of a system of Meritocracy.

"What?", I will say with astonishment," your dojo is not a system of Meritocracy?"

And with that .... the sensei will call me out to uke, and thrash me within in an inch of my life ... gee ... thanks George.

[bruceb]

In three hundred years .... the evolution of Aikido will be lumped into the so called asian fighting arts, as over this period of time enough students have added their own mixture of weapons, religion, and mysticism so that the original purpose of Aikido to be a peacefull practice to understand the love that holds the universe together is now in two categories, amatuer, and mercenary. The dark side of learning to focus the forces of Aikido have taken on a darker intent for killing and maiming when used as a military application.

The average citizen who studys aikido can not compete with the physical or mental abilities of the professional mercenary who has incorporated the simple practice into the variety of asian arts that seem to raise the senses to almost superhuman heights. Although their lives are relatively short, only 20-30 years, the incredible feats of strength show by these practitioners could easily engage six or more normal citzens with deadly results.

Aikido, in three hundred years has been sold, reintegrated into other martial arts, and the name itself is a shadow of its golden age, its first 150 years .

It is still practiced in its original form by buddist, and shinto monks who retreat to their temples, and mountain hidaways, but even their skills are no match for the technology that has enhanced body and mind beyond what any human would have believed possible.

Aside from the darker use aikido has found, its idenity has become lost outside the temple. Except for the lectures, the exhibitions by either japanese or chinese monks, who have both adapted and adopted the original principles of aikido, all studies are conducted by certified acupuncturist, or those familiar with pressure points, and the aspects of Tai-chi. Amazingly, Aikido has, for health applications, become a series of stretches, and massage methods. The first two years are spent in learning the sounds of healing, the movements of healing, and the benefits of moving in harmony to your partner.

Where did the martial aspect go? It went into the military and mercenary ranks of the international corporate soldier corps, who still have a need for the basics of killing hand to hand.

There is small contingent of renegades who practice with the old aikido, throwing each other, doing the old techniques in the old way, but they are usually recreationist who have retired from the military, or young people getting ready to travel at the beginning of their lives .... 18-25. I don't know why they persist in the old practice, without weapons gauntlets, aikido is totally useless.

Pity, it was once the pride of millions of practitioners, nearly unbeatable in the hands of a master, and perfect for bringing harmony into a barberic world. That world is gone, changed with the times.

People want exoskeloton suits, weapons gauntlets, adrenelin implants that triple the speed and strength of practitioner so that even the greatest teacher of the 20th century would look like a bewildered child.

Forgotten are the great shihans, forgotten are the japanese roots that held the budo arts together. In three hundred years it is the international asian fighting arts that have persevered. Half the population of the world is so intermixed, it is hard to tell where one culture ends and another begins.

Except for history books, don't expect to see classic aikido again. It is the stuff of monks, and exihibitions for small traveling circuses. Only the poor, undereducated, slovenly mundane workers do not have education to understand the means of technology overcoming the ancient ways of efficiently using body and mind to give the illusion of power the old aikido used to be.

Oh well, the blending of fighting arts had to come, someday. Who would have thought it would come in the 23rd century?

At least they finally learned to use healing correctly!

**********************************************************

Of course the preceding is the illusion of my own mind.

What illusions do you hold for the future of Aikido?