PS, you're not listening.

[glad2bhere]

Dear Mr. Power, McCartney, Skoss et al:

I am writing to express my deep and sincere disappointment at your deportment in this public venue. I was given to believe that the individuals participating in this Net and particularly in the Koryu and Sword portions of this Net represented exemplary practitioners of their art. As I have suspected for a while and have had confirmed to me through these repeated strings apparently you folks have learned just enough from your exposure to these traditions to "talk the talk" without "walking the walk."

a.) I am still attempting to identify where in all of this "discussion" is the much-touted quality of "consensus-building" so often ascribed to Japanese culture specifically and oriental culture in general.

b.) I am also still working to find those leadership qualities which would assist in helping individuals to "retrreat with grace" from aggressive positions, and to be relieved of the pressure to remain on the defensive beyond a reasonable point.

c.) It would also be helpful for me to know at what point this Net stopped being a venue for the intelligent exchange of information and became the exclusive fiefdom for an elite group of experts.

d.) In the hope of protecting myself in the future it would be necessary to know in advance on what subjects you folks intend to use your prodigous knowledge of your respective arts to berate, abuse, embarrass and otherwise bully individuals of your choice.

e.) It would be a service to me to know under what conditions discussion must immediately become competitive, antagonistic, mean-spirited and crude so that I can respectfully withdraw.

f.) Finally it would help me to know how I can help you experts to see that you are only hurting yourself and your respective arts by allowing discussions to come to the place that an individual withdraws their contributions. I suppose some would rate your "victory" as intellect over liberalism. For myself I place it no higher than "pyrrhic". Having indulged yourself to come out of the less-desireable parts of human nature, you are now free to pat each other on the back for protecting that narrow aspect of your art you have decided constitutes "truth".

As a Korean practitioner I can't know the exact Japanese term for it, but I didn't need to take a MA to learn that one treats a guest with indulgence, decorum and grace. Whatever you may know about culture and MA, your behavior suggests it has not translated into simple common sense and good manners. It may well be a service on my part to advise others considering participation to know what I have experienced here so that they might make a considered decision as to whether they would particiapte or not.

Regards,

Bruce W Sims
www.midwesthapkido.com

[Joseph Svinth]

Ah, when to speak and when to be silent? That's always a hard question, isn't it? Being silent means you usually get promoted faster and paid more. But then do you like yourself in the morning?

Hard choices.

I guess that's a part of the Way of the Warrior, however, deciding which battles to fight, which to slink away from.

[glad2bhere]

Dear Joe:

"...I guess that's a part of the Way of the Warrior, however, deciding which battles to fight, which to slink away from...."

Thank you for the courtesy of your response. I felt like one of those stand-up comedians tapping the mike and asking "is this thing on?" (Seems to me that happened once before regard the cost of swords, didn't it?). I appreciate you taking time to let me know that my keyboard still works.

I am getting a little too old to let things just slide-by -- business as usual. Now, on a good day I will admit that I can be much more diplomatic, and when the individual is less experienced or informed thats another case as well. The people that I am addressing above are not novices and are most certainly either authorities in their own right, or will become authorities in the not too distant future. I don't pretend that I can cause them to correct their behaviors. I think its important for someone to tell the powers-that-be when they are simply F***ing Up. The deportment I see demonstrated on this Net from time to time is not what I would accept in a classroom, nor at a service counter, nor in a dojo-- no matter HOW traditional. And if this is what passes for traditional MA (Japanese or otherwise) I suspect that there is a good reason that many of the individuals who express points of view are known and accepted only within a very narrow sub-group of their larger community.

I can't pretend that I am the person to identify as a role model, Joe, but I would be willing to nominate you if anyone ever has a question as to whether they are going over the edge. Maybe we could get a banner for one of the discussion pages--- "What Would Joe Do?"

Best Wishes,
Bruce

[Patric]

Being a good swordsman does not presuppose being a good writer. Expressing yourself in written form is a whole different arena than doing so verbally. Message boards always suffer from this. What can seem to be a quite innocent comment when said ‘in your head’ while writing can come across very differently when read. The result is often hurt feelings, misunderstanding, unintended results, etc. We’ve seen a classic example of this here in the last few weeks.

I’m going to venture that most of the readers and contributors to this forum are practitioners in some way of Japanese Swordsmanship. It is, after all, the nature of this board. For the contributors, always remember that you are representing your art. What you say here reflects on the organization you belong to. Some of these threads have thousands of viewings. This translates into the reality that if something is said here, the whole sword community will become aware of it, especially if it is controversial.

Writing is every bit the art swordsmanship is. Give it it’s due or pay the consequences. There are many connotations to the saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”