Oh how I love to start
with a rant! So buckle up and let’s go!
It appears to me that we
are living in an ever fragmenting social world, a world where people
dip into fads and friendships with a speed that baffles me. A world
where one is judged by the number of digital 'friends' one has, not
the quality of friends you've invested in. Where many believe it is
their right to their fifteen minutes of fame, no matter how
excruciatingly bad, mediocre or mundane they are. A place where
cyber-warriors prowl the ether, mocking, taunting and hiding behind
the shield of their monitors, the only mat they come close to doing
combat on is under their mouse. So is it just me or has
superficiality become the new sexy? It is the dawning of the
Superficial Self! All nod approvingly, get bored and then wander off
to find something shiny. Two points here: where is their group
identity and who gave it to them? Positive group identity is the
single most important topic to be aware of in our role of older
martial artists. Why? Well read on…
Firstly, and have a think
about this, we can see that it’s true that we have multiple group
identities and we switch between them in such a non-reflective manner
as to believe that this seamlessness is our ‘operating’ self. We
are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, workmates, Shotokan,
Kyokushin Budokai, or Kung Fu practitioners. You can fill in whatever
group identity you want from your own experiences. Think about it,
groups are so important we stigmatise by them. We treat people we
don’t like as ‘Others’ and we linguistically branded as
socially less able. If you want to dominate someone verbally you draw
a link between them and any particular social group that is seen as
unappealing. So with just the right tonal quality, perhaps a sneer,
you can cut someone down: ‘What do you know? You’re just a [fill
in appropriate group].’ Everyone reading this will have heard this
and in all probability done it themselves, even secretly in their
head.
It’s human nature to
elevate our own group and; via social group osmosis, we absorb and
then project the positives of our chosen group. By contrast we
project onto the rival group(s) all the crap negative characteristics
of that group. On ourselves we claim higher social worth and by de
facto they are of lower social worth. This is one of the ways we
feel good about ourselves. Sometimes, if a group is dominant and they
continually put another group down for long enough, then perhaps that
negativity will stick, they then have the double bonus of feeling
superior to the individual/group and getting them to internalise (and
believe) all the negative crap they’ve heaped on them.
Unfortunately, it’s always happened and always will – be aware of
that and things get easier to understand.
Above is the basis for
stereotypical behaviour and the cause of many our problems. This is
because group identity (We-image) becomes self identity (I-image).
Watch any football match to see this, not the players, but watch the
fans. Watch them groan when their team plays bad, or rise and cheer
when their team plays good. In particular watch them afterwards,
watch the winners leave the stadium singing and hands held
triumphant. Now gaze at the losers, walking dejected with heads down.
Think about it for a second, none of the fans – winner and losers -
played on the pitch! They were not active participants and yet they
act like they were. This is the power of group identity. Your team
wins and you feel like a winner, if it loses then you feel like crap!
For an in-depth look as to what physiologically happens when you win
or lose, then check out Kemper’s (1990) ‘Dominance and Eminence’
theory, details below.
Positive Group Image
in the Martial Arts
If we look at the group
identity and image of martial arts groups, they are basically divided
into two modes of perception. Firstly, how the non-martial artists
perceive the group and secondly, how other martial artists perceive
the group. Let’s be childish and juxtapose two groups together. In
the blue corner we have Tai Chi and in the red corner we have Mixed
Martial Arts (MMA). What are your immediate reactions to these two
systems? Obviously that will depend on whether you practice a martial
art or not. If you don’t, then how are each of the two martial arts
portrayed in the media? Is Tai Chi for old people and MMA for young
bucks? Both of these martial arts are ‘famous’ enough to be in
our Collective Unconscious. If you practice a martial art it may
depend on what you want from martial arts. So some martial artists
may state that the word martial means ‘warlike’ and therefore all
martial arts should have a basis in pragmatism. I know that many
‘traditional’ martial artists loathe MMA and feel that it is a
step backward and has no budo. Likewise, many MMA students feel at
‘traditional’ martial arts simply do not work, or take far too
long to learn to be effective. And there is without a doubt an
element of truth in this – but only if you look at it as a tool to
defend yourself or beat people up.
But when we add the word
‘Dō’ (Way) then the image of martial arts changes; its symbolism
now takes you off in a different direction. Now we have a martial art
that goes beyond merely teaching people to fight, it now offers a
path, a modus operandi to run one’s life. However, how many
people are aware of this? How many instructors push this? More than
that, how many people in today’s low attention span days are
prepared to invest in a martial art to this extent? Honest answer,
not many. But the martial arts, when taught right, can offer so much
more than a simple sport. As I like to say to my students, if you’re
serious then it becomes a lifestyle choice and not a leisure pursuit.
As older martial artists we have the life experience to see how
important a Dō is as a guiding superego. (Oi! I hear you cry. Make
your mind up! Is it Jungian or Freudian psychology we’re following
here! Well it’s my Blog so it’s a smorgasbord of flavours I
like!) I personally have seen how young people who have no
attachments continue that into their adult life. Many people today
are continually browsing to find a religion, culture or, in reality,
a group that values them and more importantly gives them a Dō. They
want a positive group that will filter down to a positive self and
will surround themselves with significant others that will reinforce
the group charisma. They’re looking to fill their perceived gaps,
like two pieces of a jigsaw fitting together. Don’t believe me?
Check out the ‘self help’ section in your local bookshop, in most
cases it covers a lot more space than the science or medical section.
As herd animals
(Nietzsche, but see also Kierkegaard or Simmel), we instinctively
want to surround ourselves with those that will reinforce our chosen
self-image. Goffman (1963); though speaking about disabled people,
came up with two cracking terms, the ‘own’ and the ‘wise’.
Simply put the ‘own’ are those people who are directly associated
with our group and do what we do. So subjectively it can be looked at
like a reverse pyramid: in my case Kyokushin Budokai before generic
karate before martial arts before sports/philosophy. Each section
getting larger as it moves away from us. The other term, the ‘wise’,
are those that are connected to our group, but not actual
practitioners. For example the long suffering wives, husbands or
parents that support, but do not do martial arts. This is one example
how our group identity ‘spills’ out further that the core ‘own’
group itself and can have a direct and indirect impact on how the
larger society perceives us. So be nice to your ‘wise’! And yes
you can apply this to pretty much anything that involves human
activity!
There are enough martial
arts out there to cater for everyone’s needs. After all we don’t
all drive the same car. One of the advantages of being somewhat older
than the younger members of our chosen martial art is that we have a
greater choice of life experiences with which to aid any decision
making processes that are required for solutions to problems, or as
an aid in general. With a greater understanding of group ‘we’
image and the link between self ‘I’ image and the broader link
with everyone else out there, we can patiently drive forward our
positive imagery and symbolism. Because we now know the larger
influences the smaller and the smaller influences the larger. There’s
such symmetry in the Universe if we slow down enough to see it!
Oh great… finish on a
New Age Christmas cracker euphemism! And it was going so well up till
then!
Kemper, Theodore D.
(1990) Social Structure and Testosterone: explorations in the
socio-bio-social chain. Rutgers University Press: New Jersey.
Goffman, Erving. (1963)
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
