A Question of Factionalism

With everything going on in politics these days, I often hear complaints about factionalism. First and foremost, I don't consider it, ipso facto, to be a negative thing. Our government was designed to be inefficient to as not to trample on the on the rights of the minority. Federalist 10 makes it amply clear that an elected majority can trample on rights (tyranny of the majority) just as easily as any monarch. Inefficiency keeps government from accruing too much power since government itself is an inherent contradiction to freedom. Be that as it may, I am personally chagrinned by the personal nature of many of these attacks. Both sides are guilty of it. It's pointless to say who's more at fault or who started it. That's a child's folly.

Basically, it comes down to this. How do you feel about government? Do you feel like it is a doting parent or a necessary evil? Do you feel that more of it is better or less of it is more? Every singe policy dispute that we get caught up in ran be distilled into one of these two points of view. There is nothing else. Given that, it is very possible for two people to end up on opposing sides of the issue and have good reasons for why they believe what they do. It has been my experience that those of the socialist bent often have less of a coherent line reasoning for their beliefs. Feeling strongly about something is not a philosophical position. It is no place to make policy decisions from.

I have lots of friends who think differently from me. I don't doubt that they love our Country as much as I do. I don't doubt that they think they are acting in the best interests of our Country. I am just as sure that they are wrong. I will argue and debate and try to persuade them the best I can. I will, however, never question their character or motivations. People who insist that everybody think like they do are just insecure about their positions and are scared of legitimate challenge.

Honest disagreement is a positive thing. Ad hominem attacks are for children and idiots.

Nerds and the Martial Arts

A few days ago, I had a really nice day. At the end of each martial class, I do a 15 minute debrief with Kung Fu Brothers. We talk about what we did that day, answer any lingering questions and most importantly, we talk about how martial arts have positively impacted our lives. You see, that's really my focus in teaching. I'm not talking about the nebulous benefit of having more self-confidence or focus or discipline. I ask for specifics. I want my brothers to tell me specifically how training has benefitted them. None of my current crop of students are going to be world class fighters. Not one of them has any proclivity for violence of any sort. But the often rough aspect of our class has benefitted them enormously and I'm proud to have played a part in that.

I've taught a lot of people in my life though in the past, it's always been about efficacy in combat. I was never even a little concerned about anything else the arts could impart in a person's life. As far as I was concerned, martial arts were about fighting and winning. Nothing else. Then I got injured and couldn't train anymore. I agonized for a few years about what an incredible waste of time all my previous training was. It was all useless. But then I realized something. I was dealing with my condition with a much better attitude than anybody else in my clinic. So much so that my social worker asked me to speak to the group (which I declined for fear of hubris). I owe this attitude to the martial arts. The fear I felt when confronting my new situation was no different than stepping into a life threatening situation. For this reason alone, I think everybody should practice the arts so that we may deal better with the inevitable bumps and bruises in our lives.

But to get back to my Kung Fu Brothers... Craig recently signed a major contract which has been the crowning achievement of his career so far. In doing so, he created quite a bit of work for himself in a relatively short time period. He mentioned that in the past, he would have panicked and wasted valuable time doing so. Now, he just looked at the work he had in front of him and got down to business-- enabling him to make more efficient use of his time. He mentioned that the feeling was a lot like waiting to mix it up, full contact, with one of his Kung Fu Brothers. I remember Craig said once that he used to have major anxiety for days before coming to class. One day, it just disappeared. I think it had to do with getting his ass kicked and realizing it wasn't that bad. Years ago, I told him once that certain lessons could only be learned through violence and pain. He didn't believe then but sees the truth of it now.

My other King Fu Brother ran into some financial hurdles due to the recent messiness with the stock market. He said that before he trained, he would have panicked and stressed over such an event. Now, he still felt the same rush but he had the emotional tools to deal with the same feelings more effectively. He said that he heard a voice in the back of his head telling him to get over it. He did and got on with business.

I'm not trying to take credit for their new found emotional fortitude. I didn't give it to them. If anything, I created an environment where they would feel comfortable confronting their weaknesses instead of making excuses for them. It's really clear to me that if you do not confront these issues, you cannot get past them and they will always limit your performance. The truth is they had the courage to face their demons and overcome them. They did it themselves and they are now reaping the rewards of their hard work.

What's clear to me is this. You can fake this. You have to risk something. Actually risk. If you don't really risk, you aren't really scared and then you don't get a chance to work on those issues. That's the great thing about the arts. When you're toe to toe with somebody who means to punch you in the face and kick you in the leg, you can't spin the situation. You simply have to get your act together and take care of business. Nobody cares about your excuses.

I'm grateful to have such courageous students. Sometimes, they are complete uncoordinated morons. Other times, I marvel at the courage and tenacity.

Grow Up.

I never fail to be blown away by unjustified arrogance. I watched a bunch of media pundits today on TV give John McCain a hard time because he admitted that he didn't understand the economy. They all laughed at him as if they did. It's that same schadenfreude that folks exhibited when then candidate Bush didn't know the name of the President of Pakistan. Like anybody else at that time knew.

So, let me say this. I'm an educated man. I've been lucky to attend LSE's Executive courses on Macro and micro economics. I've actually read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations from cover to cover and I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't think I understood it fully. I've got a lot a very smart friends who deal with major economics issues everyday and I spend most of my time trying to understand complex philosophical issues. What's really clear to me is that nobody really understands the economy. It's all a guess and it's all after the fact.

What do I mean by that? It's like fighting. I've been studying fighting for 31 years of my life. I've trained with the very best in the world. I've put together hand-to-hand programs from various forward leaning military units. Safe to say, I know quite a bit about fighting. But when it comes right down to it, I cannot predict how a fight will unfold nor do I have anything wise to say about how all fights will happen. Granted, once I see a person move, I can make some pretty accurate predictions of how he's going to fight but before he moves and engages me, I simply have no idea. And the thing about fighting is this, it doesn't matter how good you are, somebody can always have your number. Knowledge is not a guarantee of victory, though it can stack the deck in your favor.

Fact is, once you engage in a a fight, you simply don't know what going to happen. You cannot account for al the variables. It's beginning to be my impression that the economy is like that. Economists have lots of smart stuff to say after an event. It's meant to make them look smart. I, too, can dissect a fight after it happens in meticulous details and impress you with my perspicacity. What nobody wants to admit is that this 'Monday morning quarterbacking' is relatively useless in predicting the future.

Let me be clear here. The surest way to lose a fight is to have a plan you cannot veer from. There's a saying in the military; No plan survives first contact. The plan isn't important but absolutely nothing is more important than the act of planning. If you plan properly, you force yourself to look at your strengths and weakness and develop strong fundamentals. That allows you to enter a fight in a proper mind state reacting to each thing that comes up. In a streetfight, this is a relatively short span of time. In a longer sanctioned fight, it allows you to focus on strategy and tactics instead of basic responses.

Economically, we've forgotten fundamentals. We expect some grand strategy to allow us to grow unfettered and without consequence. That's ultimately the fatal flaw of our Country. We've forgotten consequences. We want to save everybody from having to deal with them. I'm speaking specifically of the sub-prime mess. Why should we use tax payers dollars to bail out people who foolishly entered into agreements they could not live up to? If we bail them out, how will they learn the lesson? Treating everybody like children will be our downfall. Children can't compete in a world of adults.

Luck of the Draw

I'm a little disappointed by all the invective directed at Geraldine Ferraro recently. Accusations of racism seem misplaced especially given her history. It seems that these days, what a person says is far more important than how they behave. Is doesn't seem to matter if you devote your life to humanitarian causes if you don't say the right things. Just as tellingly, nor does it seem to matter what kind of bastard you might be as long as you pay lip service to the right points of view. I speak, of course, of Muslims as a group who will loudly proclaim discrimination and a lack of tolerance any chance they get while subjecting their own people to the most draconian and in some cases, evil, intolerance. But that's not really the point I want to make here.

I want to voice my support for Ferraro's point of view. It makes sense to me. Obama certainly wouldn't be in the position he's in were it not for the fact that he is black. I'm not saying that he's not a capable man. He certainly is. But he is nothing special if you disregard his ethnic heritage. Face it, the very worst thing you can call an educated white person is racist. They will tolerate accusations of incompetence, malice and abject stupidity but call them racist and all gloves are off. Support for Obama allows a lot of these types of people to flaunt their "enlightenment." It's not for nothing that more people say they support Obama then actually vote for him in reality.

Obama may or may not deserve to be President. But there's simply no denying that he finds himself in an enviable position. In the past, black people have undoubtedly had to deal with discrimination but those days have changed. Systemic racism is gone in this country. There may be small pockets of it individually but as a policy, it just doesn't exist. I'm living proof of that. I've dealt with racism at a personal level but never professionally. At the same time, I don't deny that many people have looked at me as fulfilling a quota in their lives. I once dated a Southern girl from South Carolina. Her Grandmother remarked that she hoped we would get married because it would be "cool" to have an Asian in the family. Obama is benefiting from the same sentiment. He should recognize this and recall his attack dogs. Ferraro simply doesn't deserve it.