Aikido

[spudtater]

From the leaflet handed out by the Aikido society:

The founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, felt that the true spirit of aikido aimed to create a world without enemies. "This world was designed by our creator", he said, "there is no need to fight against its natural harmony. With true mind of love and compassion we can go back to the original principles of creation, end establish noble and pure world. [sic] This is what we are obliged to achieve and this is the purpose of our life".

Okay, non-violent martial art: good. Talking like a freaky cultist: bad.
From the next page:

Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969), the founder of aikido, was possibly history's greatest martial artist. Even at 80, Morihei could disarm any attacker, repel multiple opponents, and pin a man with a single finger.

Ummm... the first two claims were stretching credibility. The last one's just silly.

Comments

[markadm.livejournal.com]

Hmm... interesting. Obviously, you don't want anything to do with Hippie Crap. However, you can learn a lot and do a lot without attacking/weapons. We learnt that in Officer Safety Training.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess it's a very similar idea.
Whether it's from ideological grounds, or because of professional responsibility, the idea is to stop an attacker while causing the least possible amount of harm to them.

[markadm.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I forget the term for it, but you rule out all the over-the-top levels of force until you get to the right one...

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

Reasonable force?

[markadm.livejournal.com]

No... it's a not-often used word (hence I can't remember). I think it has a "pre-" prefix, but I can't remember...

[markadm.livejournal.com]

I just remembered:

PRECLUSION.

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

Not a term I've heard used in that context before, but it makes sense, yes. The policeman that came to talk to us at work (social security office) about personal safety and our rights, etc, had a fairly simple view of it. He basically said you don't use a weapon if they don't, otherwise all bets are off pretty much. I think there is a vague sense that an experienced martial artist is expected to do less lasting damage than your average joe though. My view is that I don't start violence but if someone else starts it I'll finish it with minimum harm to me - I care considerably less about them! It's a bit different if you're professionally required to initiate "physical interacton" (violence isn't quite the right term here) with someone.