1. 

Disagree that simply being "a good person" prevents violence. There are plenty of good people who have had violence enacted against them. Some human predators LIKE "good people" because they're less likely to fight back in many cases. I've got friends who may be TOO forgiving of people who have wronged them, and while this doesn't always result in physical violence, it definitely results in a sort of victimization.

This guy is clueless.

He doesn't understand that martial arts is more than fighting. Granted that fighting is the martial part, but the art part includes the use of motion, kata, etc.

He's also wrong in that a great deal of martial arts comes from the lower and working class in Okinawa not the upper class "hit men" as he states.

I don't know who he is, but he clearly has no understanding about martial arts, philosophy, self improvement, etc.

Guys like this scare me as they're the type that want to outlaw what we do and believe that "talking" will end all confrontation. As I've stated over and over here, the best option is to avoid confrontation, but when no other options exist, people need to be able to defend themselves.

This guy is a perfect example of what pugspaw talks about when someone that has no experience and is not qualified to speak about martial arts at all.

He is clueless. He is quoting Socrates without giving the interpretation of what Socrates meant. Socrates was executed too by the way. I'd call that physical harm. But Socrates wasn't talking about physical harm or physical confrontations.

We live in a society that people don't care if you are a good person or not. Many do not place any value on lives, your or their own. If you don't know how to protect yourself you just might become a victim.

Like most people, he does not understand what the word ART means. Art comes from the latin ARS which means "An application of techniques"

He is right that you have to think for yourself and not have a grand-pupa telling you how to think.

Will you really NEED Martial arts? Probably not but I had someone try to punch me (unprovoked I was walking and man just swung) and I blocked without thinking I was glad for my training. Someone said that maybe I would have blocked anyway who knows.

Recently, where I live, there have been more physical attacks against people.

You got to understand that S M there is a pacifist. So he doesn't like MMA types, hitter or no hitter.

So Art, in his conception, can never be joined together with combat, war, or martial virtues.

Not hit men, but mercenaries, bodyguards, etc. Hollywood and media, btw, have a lot of bodyguards.

Joe Rogan, however, is the very definition of verbal violence freak, so him talking to S M is very funny.

So S M's views apply most to the Rogans and MMA wannabes, or MMA type professional fighters or those in training.

S M also doesn't believe in spanking, as that is aggressor or conditioning children to fear authority, obey violence, etc. That's a good point, but his point of view is about self improvement, not the increase of external power via power projection.

(SM mentioned Socrates) Socrates... was a warrior philosopher. So another Bruce Lee. There's a significant knowledge gap in S M, but he improves over time. This just wasn't his time. Expertise in one subject... does not confer authority on other topics. A martial artist doesn't know sniper methods, if not a sniper or trained as marksman. A sniper doesn't know martial art methods, if not a martial artist. Just the way humans are in the crab bucket.

The whole idea of pacifism, real pacifism, is that by offering no physical and no verbal violence to a person, they don't aggravate or escalate the situation. Which is the same position held by people here who tell others that self defense is about walking away. Preferably not while being stabbed, shot, or kicked in the back as you walk away. Though that's not mentioned much. Pacifists, though, generally see violence as a crutch, so they think if someone knows how to punch or fight, they will escalate the situation preferring what they favor and know works, over trying to find an alternative path. Which is true, most people who learn fighting, will want to test it out, if they are male and between 16 and 26. These days, women are told to fight for social status too, look at all those videos on youtube.

While I understand this point of view, I don't particularly agree with it. S M is also not a big fan of the government or force of authority, so don't need to worry about him outlawing anybody's behavior, specifically.

If you were to talk to S M, one of the easier ways to connect and make him rethink things is to connect the fear of obeying government authority with the self improvement of defying death and fear in martial arts. That is self improvement, of a kind. By being intimately familiar with lethal force, death, mutilation, and violence, one builds a resistance to it, that resistance works just as well against the government's force commanding obedience. S M really dislikes obeying authority, he is anti authoritarian so the concept of martial arts guru wouldn't sit well with him.

S M thinks authority only gets obedience by threatening terror and violence against the people. Where a warrior like Socrates and SUn Tzu differs, however, is what to do about that.

Def Socratic quote:

I would rather die having spoken in my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet in law ought any man use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death, if a man is willing to say or do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs deeper than death.

-Socrates before the Athenian death panel

"Speak about something real ... and then you won't need martial arts". Until someone punches you in the face. Apparently doing martial arts to better yourself and keep you safe is bad but doing drugs ("lock people up for having the wrong vegetation") is OK.What a complete moron.

Pacifists are the last person I'd listen to... In today's world bad stuff happens. I wouldn't want this guy around when that time comes. When the **** hits the fan, this guy will not only be no help at all, with this type of guy, someone is going to be seriously hurt trying to save his sorry @ss. -- "No one can fundamentally do any harm to a good woman or a good man." words spoken from an idiot in my book.

Here is real quote from Socrates "He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy."

_________________

Funny here is the same guy admitting that he'd kill his mother if she weren't related to him. -- someone needs to kick this guy's @ss, if anyone deserves it he does.