degrees of many things
I’m thinking that a sense of responsibility emerges from two major sources.
The nature of the self and societal input, which might be followed in a rote way as part of a belief/social system. The latter is what one first Knows or is later taught, and strong pressure is exerted to follow that way. Some might say that it is a person’s responsibility to test the “rules.” I would look at it more from the point of view of self-knowledge and finding a way of life inside or outside of the lines which agree with who you are. At any time during this process, there is a degree of ignorance present, inside and out which can have far-reaching consequences.
Fact is no one wants to be a victim, and part of MA training involves not Feeling like a victim either. That’s where the puffing up comes into play. Add an overinflated ego (compensating for still feeling like a victim), and one has a problem. Part of that is not dealing properly with the fear that is there, not even wanting to admit to it, and engendering the support of those around you because you need it. This dynamic can happen in people who have proven fighting skills, just as it can in a yokel who blows it out his *ss. Hence, the magic art or move which is bigger and better, etc. When a fight is won, this feeds an illusion of invulnerability, which goes beyond an honest confidence that with study, one might be in a better position to defend, and that’s that.
Even in a person who is responsible and exercises integrity (honest with self and others), the job or developing Interactive Integrity (my term) isn’t done. Because the step needs to be taken to extend that into another’s feelings and not to interpret those feelings from one’s own point of view. It’s not just walking in another person’s shoes (as one’s self), but walking in them as the other person.
So, yes, we are all responsible for our training and where it takes us and how we teach it (even in helping out a newbie at school). Yet, there are stages and gaps in our knowledge which must be acknowledged as valid. This is not to make excuses, but rather to realize that degree of responsibility must relate to development of the types of knowledge indicated above.
We do the best with what we have and act/teach with honesty. Anything less than that is not as it should be in MA practice and teaching, imo. To teach invincibility is dishonest and lacks integrity. Teaching in a “box” might not necessarily be dishonest if that is all you have known and it has worked for you. Promoting unreasonable expectations in students, which you know to be pipe dreams, is dishonest. If you don’t know and the student doesn’t, then unfortunate results are more a matter of ignorance than anything else. As I said, degrees of ignorance are everywhere, and much is taken on assumption. When confronted with a teacher who knows more than we do, it can be natural to assume that the knowledge extends much further. If this way of thinking is encouraged via cult of personality, or instance, the student might not have resources to deal with it, unless presented with defeat or seeing teacher taken down.
If a person is brainwashed into thinking that a certain martial art is invincible, or that certain moves make one King Kong, then one might say that the person is fallen into some bad mental programming, and might be in a social situation which demands beliefs like this. With no experience, and the emphasis on taking what is given as IT (in order to be or to feel worthy, even to be safe), the responsibility of the student to question must be extracted from more objective experience and observation. It is very hard to question what one does not know at all, in new circumstances, or in old circumstances which have formed the basis for a large part of one’s identity or sense of well-being.
Yet, the responsibility grows, and integrity has faltered, when teachers knowingly (consciously) perpetuate what does not work, or leave out vital components in their teaching for any number of reasons, while possibly misleading students re where the training They are getting will get them.
Yes, we are responsible for our own training, but how can we be responsible for what we do not see? For instance, one goes to a T’ai Chi school. Soft Soft Soft. Yes, soft is important. What one doesn’t know is that the softness within and which shows is layered on a hardness which must be trained, but that isn’t mentioned, and so on.
Given the human condition as it stands, I doubt that much can be done, except to teach people to think for themselves, and to be able to function independently of the group, as well as in cooperation. It is a difficult balance. It is true that we don’t exist in a vacuum. If there are lies, they must be broken. Better a broken lie than a broken student.
Cody
