It’s funny when one considers the usefulness of martial arts, or anything else. You’ll probably never need to use it. Most people who do use this stuff, do so out of choice (realistically it should only be do-or-die). Of course, this has been covered elsewhere. But my point is relevant because the same goes for almost everything. Lots of people save money their whole lives and never spend it or save it for emergencies that never happen. Some people become well-read experts on philosophy and then never have to engage in a logical debate for any reason except sick personal pleasure.
So it makes you think… who does need to legitimately use stuff? Government scientists? The military? Politicians? Business moguls? The more power a person has, the more important we take their decisions to be, the more often we consider their actions as significant. That kind of power seems to be what everyone in society admires or envies the most; the ability to influence or sway large masses of people. But a lot of powerful people are careless and make typically unwise decisions, which impact everyone on a very direct economic or community level. This is not surprising though, as to get mad military or political power, you have to give up a part of yourself that is very precious.
At the other extreme of social irresponsibility, are people who refuse to take any consciously active steps in the direction of their lives or actions. I once had an idiotic friend who could never get his life together. Drug addiction, stealing, failing out of school, lying — all the bad stuff you could do without getting violent he pretty much did. I think they were mostly self-destructive things, but anyone around him got pulled along for the ride. Appropriately, in his brief swings of sobriety he would start talking about how spiritually advanced or enlightened he was in comparison to everyone else — he was a real piece of work. One of the million times he had cleaned up his act and gone clean temporarily, he started chatting me up about how important it is for us to get out there and help the poor unprivileged people. You know, he was basically saying we should throw cash in the streets of Africa and give everyone shelter and food.
Now, I don’t actually think that helps anyone. I think that temporarily assuages a crisis. But the thing is, this guy was championing these marvelous humanist ideas before he had ever made a single car payment, paid his own rent, cooked his own food or (most necessary of all) spent consistent time practicing a skill. How on earth could he possibly help other people if he was pissing off his friends and relying on his parents while repeatedly getting addicted to drugs? Unreal.
His spoiled-rotten charity sounds almost like the inverse version of a ’70s Japanese Yakuza movie or something. Taxi Driver-type stuff, amirite? Total psycho screw-up goes all out to save an abused prostitute from being a sacrifice for a rich-kid fraternity. A loathsome person with ugly methods does a virtuous thing that the “upstanding” community services are too lazy or afraid to do. Of course, these kinds of idiot-savante superheros are pretty rare. Their help is sort of arbitrary. It doesn’t seem… dependable?
To be human is to experience pleasure and suffering. The internal peace we all claim to desire probably culminates in a non-human existence. A lot of people lose track of peace, or when they talk about peace it’s like they’re blowing hot air. In other words, most people don’t want to fess up to their subtle belief that it’s fun to have problems. Even when people try to claim that’s not true, that they don’t like drama, don’t they still like it when there are unfortunate people for them to help? Those are still problems, albeit not one’s own. So that’s a problem there, isn’t it? The problem of subtly desiring problems to solve.
And then we all think, “but not me! I see how the world is for real. I’m a good person. I like everybody!” Which is just more typical sandwich counter baloney. People reveal who they are during disasters or horrible situations and threatened circumstances. It ain’t pretty. When the average person is confronted by terrible fear or lust or anger or any other strong emotion, they become possessed and blank out. When they come to, they’ve done something they regret.
That is the craziness of life, my friends. Deep realization is often comprised of personal factors of responsibility, consistency — an embodiment of faith. Not faith in the magical, make-believe way. Faith as in, action without question. Something needs to be done and you do it. But it’s not the same as just being a hard worker or a military man, ‘coz enlightened folks are morally perfect and nice and charming.
Ultimately, in life you don’t have to do anything. But you’ll be (more) miserable if you do nothing. So you do stuff. End of story. Existential problems solved.
Wizard Smoke 