Comments on previous
Just to add my two cents while counting the time as the flaming kindles.
My single largest frustration in this enterprise has not been the skepticism and disbelief that many people have publicly expressed upon reading the history of Yachigusa-Ryu. That is all reasonable.
My frustration is in the rhetorical tricks applied under the assumption of superiority. The fraud vigilantes seem insist that any attempt to question their motives means you must be guilty. Anyone who has studied the McCarthyist Communist hunts will recognize that tactic of rhetorical inviolability.
It’s the old witch hunt: We’ll burn you at the stake: if you die that proves you were guilty. If you fight back, it also proves you are guilty because you know you’ll be saved if you are innocent.
Cest La Vie.
In the end the only defense against overwhelming shouting is to say your piece and hope that your detractors make bigger fools out of themselves than you do.
Well, maybe that's all a bit over the top rhetorically. I tried to reach out to people with an open heart, and the mean-spiritedness that a few folks returned hurt. Nobody likes being treated like a liar and a fool, so I suppose I'm still a touch bitter.
Thankfully, we have nothing to lose except pride. However, we do have a lot to gain by reaching out to people and trying to build community. And rather than seem like we are flaming the members of e-Budo universally, I should point out that there were a number of posters who did sincerely seek information and tried hard to keep the discussion pure. I would have been happy to keep a thread going with them, and will do so in another medium if they wish to talk to me further.
As always, feel free to send Gary or me an email (our addresses are listed above). We'll respond to comments and questions that are sincere and courteous. I'd like to keep up a dialogue with readers and seekers.
My single largest frustration in this enterprise has not been the skepticism and disbelief that many people have publicly expressed upon reading the history of Yachigusa-Ryu. That is all reasonable.
My frustration is in the rhetorical tricks applied under the assumption of superiority. The fraud vigilantes seem insist that any attempt to question their motives means you must be guilty. Anyone who has studied the McCarthyist Communist hunts will recognize that tactic of rhetorical inviolability.
It’s the old witch hunt: We’ll burn you at the stake: if you die that proves you were guilty. If you fight back, it also proves you are guilty because you know you’ll be saved if you are innocent.
Cest La Vie.
In the end the only defense against overwhelming shouting is to say your piece and hope that your detractors make bigger fools out of themselves than you do.
Well, maybe that's all a bit over the top rhetorically. I tried to reach out to people with an open heart, and the mean-spiritedness that a few folks returned hurt. Nobody likes being treated like a liar and a fool, so I suppose I'm still a touch bitter.
Thankfully, we have nothing to lose except pride. However, we do have a lot to gain by reaching out to people and trying to build community. And rather than seem like we are flaming the members of e-Budo universally, I should point out that there were a number of posters who did sincerely seek information and tried hard to keep the discussion pure. I would have been happy to keep a thread going with them, and will do so in another medium if they wish to talk to me further.
As always, feel free to send Gary or me an email (our addresses are listed above). We'll respond to comments and questions that are sincere and courteous. I'd like to keep up a dialogue with readers and seekers.
Labels: Essays, The Martial Arts
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