Power

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

the whole concept of what people think “power” means; the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality; the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events; supply (a device) with mechanical or electrical energy; move or travel with great speed or force; physical strength and force exerted by something or someone; energy that is produced by mechanical, electrical, or other means and used to operate a device; move or travel with great speed or force.

Of these only a few will apply toward martial arts, i.e., the ability to do something or act in a particular way; the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events; move or travel with great speed or force; physical strength and force exerted by something or someone; move or travel with great speed or force.

Then there is the psychological powers such as, “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events; political or social authority or control, especially that exercised by a government; a right or authority that is given or delegated to a person or body; the military strength of a state; a person or organization that is strong or influential within a particular context; used in the names of movements aiming to enhance the status of a specified group.”

As the author of God’s Bastard blog writes in a blog titled, “Power & Leadership 1 & 2,” power is significant when it comes to groups, survival and hierarchal control through status, etc (my take on her article that is). As she states and I believe is a large part of our responsibility in teaching martial arts for self-defense is the, “Live-or-Death” situations that any human may encounter in life. 

In MA-SD, the instructors tend to lean toward such “Codes of Conduct” as they interpret from such foreign terse teachings such as the Ken-po Goku-i or tomes like the “Bubishi.” Seldom do practitioners or instructors take the time and make the effort to study such things and question them but instead assume their meanings as they perceive them accordingly and make them the defacto leadership rules with any power concepts that are assumed and derived through the teachings of a particular dojo and its head instructor. 

Power in and of itself with all its variations can be cut and pasted to accommodate any one persons perceptions toward often biased goals that usually benefit that individual where such other teachings mentioned tend to insinuate unbiased goals of the group as a whole. We can even detect the human survival model in that last statement because it is the hierarchal status driven model of groups or tribes to survival of that group or tribe in relation to, “Others,” who may be competing against that group or tribe for something that often equates to “Power.” 

Power as with almost any other concept of this nature and for this type of discipline is another one of those things that instructors must study and embrace for a teaching model that is meant as a goal of martial art self-defense as it relates to the whole that is a social construct toward survival of that society comprised of many groups or tribes. 

Any one or combination of power definitions can and often do skew goals in regard to power as perceived toward any particular distinctions made by individual or group.  

Bibliography (Click the link)