Thoughts on geeking out

Geeking out has been defined, at least by way of Google, as freaking out over something that others think is geeky. I don't think everyone geeks out over something, but I feel kind of sorry for those who don't.

I admit to being a promiscuous geeker, meaning that I geek out on several things, ranging from martial arts to ancient Greece to critical theory, among other things.

I've noticed that people who geek out often like to geek out about movies about the object of their geeking. For example, when I was on the local volunteer fire department, our guys would laugh at the inaccuracy of firefighter movies...but they were glued to the screen and probably teared up at the appropriate moments (not that they'd ever admit that to anyone).

I'm in that boat when it comes to karate, and particularly movies and TV shows like The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, the contemporary version of the story. While the karate techniques in this are only marginally like the real thing, the spirit of Mr. Miyagi is pretty close to the spirit of Okinawan karate, which in my opinion covers a multitude of sins. And the solo forms or katas shown are based on real ones, although they were generally mangled.

In this age of Brazilian jiu jitsu, Muay Thai and mixed martial arts, karate is as retro as analog watches, vinyl records and cell phones that are just phones. Still, it's my thing.

The movie and show are comically inaccurate as far as what it's really like for some of these reasons:

*First of all, the flashy techniques. Anyone who is dumb enough to try the crane technique (pictured above) really doesn't deserve to have intact ribs. And, while balance is good, spinning hook kicks on trees has limited application.

*Second, the training methods are hilariously unspecific. I seem to recall that the late great Bruce Lee said, "If you want to develop your punch, punch!" Instead, these movies emphasize waxing cars and painting fences and hanging clothes. You get good at what you practice. Exactly that.

*Third, it's amazing how many people become expert fighters if not black belts in a few lessons. It took most of the people I know several years. It's almost like downloading martial arts styles on The Matrix movies. If it was easy, it would be cheating.

*Fourth, I've done this stuff off and on for much longer than the median age of contemporary humans (without ever getting really good at it). I cannot recall a sensei or a senior show me a cool technique. Mostly they make you drill on the same dull, extremely non-flashy boring stuff you were first shown early on. You also have three really close friends: tiredness, boredom and pain.

Having said all that, I was glued to Cobra Kai like a fly on....whatever flies enjoy close proximity to. I can hardly wait for the next season.

Meantime, sweep the leg! And geek proudly.

To paraphrase book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament, "Whatever your mind finds to geek on, geek on it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom or geeking in the realm of the dead."

Cultural literacy

The young Jackie Chan getting whacked by Bruce Lee. Image by way of wikipedia.

OK, enough of trivialities about policy, politics and public life. It's time to talk about something important, to wit, passing on the cultural heritage of humanity to the next generation. I did my part earlier this week when I introduced my grandson to one of the pinnacles of cinematic history.

(Previously, we explored other masterpieces like Wayne's World and Blazing Saddles.)

Yes, of course, I am talking about Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. Where else, after all, can one find such nuanced and complex characters as Bolo and Han? Or such immortal lines as "Boards don't hit back"? Or get the feel of the early 70s coolness vibe?

The classic also provides an opportunity to practice math skills by counting the guys Bruce whacks in the movie, (one of whom was the neophyte Jackie Chan). My grandson lost count but estimates it to be around 100.

It's an honor and a privilege to pass on the Great Tradition. When he's old enough to fully understand The Big Lebowski, my work will be done.

(But seriously, while diligently researching this blog post...OK, after a quick glance at Wikipedia....I read that some scholars have argued that decolonization and decoloniality are the progressive political subtexts of Bruce Lee's movies. There's a teaser here. So there.)

Samurai snoozer

Image by way of wikipedia.

One might think that a film like Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai film Yojimbo would be right up my alley. And it kind of is.

But I have to admit that it put me to sleep three nights in a row--and I'm not proud of that fact. After major efforts, I finally finished it tonight.

I can't figure out why it put me out like a light. After all, as a martial artist, I must fess up to the fact that I have derived a great deal of  my politics and ethics from my idiosyncratic interpretation of the samurai code.

And I've been interested in Japanese culture for many years.

And the time period in which the film was set--the 1860s--was a fascinating time in Japanese history. The Tokugawa Shogunate was coming to an end. Rule by samurai types was pretty much over. Rule by capitalists was on the way. Money was taking the place of honor. Imperialism was soon to follow. This was the period in time the ruined the lives of many teachers in my lineage of Okinawan karate.

The film is about the breakdown of traditional restraints on behavior, something that has happened over and over again in place after place as the shoddy rule of mammon takes hold. One of the bad guys (whose hair looks Western) carries a gun. Say what you want about samurai, they had a distaste for firearms, considering them to be vulgar and dishonorable for a true bushi or warrior, a sentiment I kind of inherited as a karate-ka.

And I've always been fascinated by the somewhat romantic Japanese fascination with ronin, i.e. masterless samurai who wandered the land and were the subject of many exciting stories.

All of which is to say that I should have been glued to the screen but obviously wasn't. Which leads me to two possible conclusions: either I'm not getting enough sleep or I need to watch some zombie flicks. The jury is still out.

SPEAKING OF THE SHODDY RULE OF MAMMON, here's more climate change stuff for WV's ruling class to deny.

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS. Dolphins do.

IT'S NOT ALL BAD NEWS. Childhood obesity is starting to go down in several states.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Big fights. Bigger hair

 

 When the Spousal Unit is on the road, I sometimes, when not completely overcome with grief and longing, watch videos that she would not be very interested in. This is how, for example, I got through the Sopranos. This week, I watched one that people who know of my fondness for the martial arts (and soft spot for movies about them) have been urging me to for some time.

To wit, Roadhouse starring Patrick Swayze, which apparently has quite a following and is a particular favorite among club bouncers. It was a pretty fun film, complete with a cartoon character bad guy, vehicles with giant wheels, romance and lots of smashing things.

There were plenty of fights and they were pretty big, but they were nothing in comparison with the hair. This film was released in 1989, which apparently was the golden age of the mullet. Patrick had one that couldn't be beat, although the one worn by his love interest played by Kelly Lynch came pretty close.

The big hair thing faded out most places by the early 90s, although it persisted in southern West Virginia a good bit longer than that.

Anyway, it was an entertaining cultural artifact. Now I feel like a better person.

(Technical comment: the throat technique used by Patrick could probably cause death in some cases, but I seriously doubt it would break the skin in the way depicted.)

TWO FOR THE ROAD. Most Americans believe the rich pay too little in taxes and most would support raising taxes to make Social Security viable into the future.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

"This is mine"

I've been blogging off and on lately about the connections between evolution and our social and political life. It seems that recent research has pretty much busted the bubble of those who thought that people are blank slates on which society writes whatever it will.

If that idea was true, then it might follow that all our nasty traits are due to the corrupting influence of society and could be removed given a different environment. If, on the other hand, we carry a lot of evolutionary baggage from our pre-human ancestors, this might not be so easily done.

In a classic passage, the 18th century philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau finds the source of human corruption in the primal sin of private property:

The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: 'Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'

Rousseau and others in this tradition believed that with a reorganized society, we might be free of this corruption and spare ourselves any number or crimes, wars and murders.

It can't be denied that greed for private wealth has caused all kinds of carnage. And it shouldn't be forgotten that people like Rousseau played an important role in opposing arbitrary tyranny and absolutism and making real social gains. But the utopian vision has run aground these days, and part of the problem might be the raw materials with which the reformer has to work.

DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUTS. Republicans plan to kill or weaken health care reform bit by bit if victorious in November.

HAIR OF THE DOG. This sampling from a new book looks at how right wing "philanthropy" helped pave the way for the Great Recession.

COLD COMFORT. Speaking of the Great Recession, the National Bureau of Economic Research said it officially ended in June 2009. Just not so's anyone could tell.

STEPPING UP. In this op-ed, a wealthy entrepreneur argues for ending Bush era tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

INDULGE ME. Longtime readers of Goat Rope will remember El Cabrero's fondness for the martial arts. Here's an interesting item from the Washington Post about how China's newly wealthy are hiring martial arts experts as bodyguards.

SOME BIRD. Imagine one with teeth and a 17 foot wingspan.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A golden moment

Today I won't dwell on bad news but rather remember a magic moment that reflects a little of the kindness and hospitality of the Okinawa people.

One day last week as our afternoon training session ended at the prefectural budokan (martial arts training faculty), we were hanging out in the adjacent park and beginning to think about returning to the hotel when a group of schoolgirls came by on their way to naginata training.

A naginata back in the day was a weapon, kind of like a staff with a blade on it. Women often trained in it to protect the home when the men were away. Today, naginata-do is practiced as a budo, or martial way of spiritual and physical cultivation. The metal blade has given way to wicker and bamboo.

They tried their English on us as we greeted them back in Japanese. I suppose they are used to Western karate pilgrims. We pointed to their naginatas and used our hands to ask for a demonstration in the park.

It didn't take a whole lot of persuading. They demonstrated several two-person kata or training exercise, giggled and bowed. We bowed, applauded and giggled as well and then we waved goodbye.

Just another day in Naha ...

Fudoshin

This pyramid at Teotihuacan has some fudoshin going on. It would be kind of hard to turn it over.

Today is the final day of Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day has looked at a word or concept from the martial arts and/or Zen tradition that may be of interest to people who want to make the world less nasty. You'll also find news and links about current events.

Today's word is...fudoshin (rhymes with judo shin), which means "immovable mind."

As you might expect by now, the idea needs some unpacking. It does not mean dogmatism, rigid thinking or fixed ideas. Instead it implies a rooted mental state or level of determination as well as equanimity. Fudoshin in that sense is a necessity for anyone committed to working to improve things over the long haul.

In karate there is a posture called fudo dachi or immovable stance. It looks like a cross between a horse stance and a forward stance and has a low center of gravity. Things and/or people with high centers of gravity are easy to trip, throw or turn over.

Think of the song "We Shall Not be Moved."

I had a fudoshin moment a few years ago when I got summoned to the office of a high state official who was upset about things I'd written in newspaper columns about the shabby way poor people had been treated at the time. I'm not sure what the intent was, other than to "get my mind right" a la Cool Hand Luke. When I got the call, I agreed to go and was very polite, but all the while I was thinking, "Fudoshin, dudes. Deal with it."

In looking around to see what others have written about fudoshin, I found a pretty good summary in wikipedia. I'm not sure whether it's a quotation from another source or one written for the entry, but it works for me:

A spirit of unshakable calm and determination,
courage without recklessness,
rooted stability in both mental and physical realms.
Like a willow tree,
powerful roots deep in the ground
and a soft, yielding resistance against
the winds that blow through it.

WHAT PASSED. Here are some key ingredients of the economic recovery package agreed to by the conference committee. A vote in the House is likely today, with the Senate to follow possibly this weekend. While the bill isn't perfect, as Paul Krugman points out here, there are lots of good things in there and some bad things are taken out.

Some wheeling and dealing continued after the agreement had been reached. Final votes in both houses may occur today.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH. Here's an account of a revisitation of Milgram's famous experiment on obedience to authority.

TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO REMEMBER. Science finds a strong link between sleep and memory.

URGENT NEANDERTHAL UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Mushin

Seamus McGoogle spends most of his time in a state of mushin.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day looks at a word or concept from the martial arts and/or Zen tradition that may be of interest to people who want to make the world less nasty. You'll also find news and links about current events.

As I mentioned Monday, most of the words have to do with paying attention. Kamae, the subject of Tuesday's post is all about readiness before taking action. Zanshin, see yesterday's post, was about the state of mind on completing an action.

Today's word is mushin, with the mu being like a cow sounds and the shin being what it looks like.

Here's a paradox. Mushin represents the highest mental state, but it literally means "no-mindedness." Far from being stupid, it means responding spontaneously and appropriately to a situation without having to stop and think about it.

As esoteric as it sounds, most of us have probably had this experience at some point. A good basketball player probably doesn't have to think about a lay up--he or she just does it.

In the martial arts, sometimes if you're lucky you do something without thought and then think "that was cool." As the late great Bruce Lee put it,

...when an opportunity occurs, I don't hit. It hits all by itself.

In the context of Japanese swordsmanship, the Zen master Takuan wrote of that state:

The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death. When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that strikes.

The use of the term flow by Takuan fits in well with modern psychology. The researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote an excellent book some years back titled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience about just that kind of thing.

People in a state of flow, which can be experienced in lots of ways, are so absorbed in what they're doing that they may lack self-consciousness altogether. I think the slang term being "in the zone" refers to the same kind of thing.

Here's another paradox, in martial arts and other traditional disciplines, the way to get to mushin is through drill, drill, drill. You train so you don't have to think.

People who want to work to make the world a better place can approach mushin by getting so competent at pulling things together that you can do it without having to start from scratch every time. That may involve good alliances, media and communications competency, an understanding of strategy, and ready access to good information.

Mushin is a nice place to be, although you usually only become aware of it after it happens.

STIMULUS DEAL. The House and Senate conference committee reached a tentative deal on a scaled-back recovery package which many economists believe is too small to jolt the economy. It now goes back to each house.

CONTRACTING OUT federal jobs to the private sector leaves one out of five such workers in poverty, according to the latest Economic Policy Institute snapshot.

ONE TO WATCH. The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments March 3 in a case that will determine the propriety of WV Justice Brent Benjamin hearing cases regarding Massey Energy. Benjamin, a political unknown, was elected in 2004 with the help of millions of dollars from Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

DARWIN AT 200. Here's another look.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Zanshin

Master Wu demonstrates zanshin after doing his laundry.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. This series looks at interesting (to me anyhow) concepts from the martial arts and related Zen traditions that might be useful to people interesting in making the world less nasty.

Yesterday's word, kamae, was about a state or readiness before going into action. Today's word, zanshin, is about the state that follows the completion of action. Literally, it means something like remaining mind, but it is really hard to unpack.

Imagine the silence that follows immediately from a powerful live performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that just stands there and is as strong in its way as the music itself.

In karate, zanshin is the state that should follow the completion of a kata or a real application of techniques. Katas are solo exercises of pre-arranged series of fighting movements that have been passed down from generation to generation. They can be beautiful to watch when properly performed and contain a multitude of practical applications.

Each one is different but they follow a similar pattern. They begin and end with a bow, illustrating the maxim that "karate begins and ends with courtesy." They commence with a state of kamae or readiness. The first move is generally defensive, reflecting the moral maxim that "in karate there is no first attack."

After a series of explosive movements that also contains the contrasting elements of speed and slowness, hardness and softness, and expansion and contraction, the sequence ends in perfect stillness. But somehow the awareness and intensity continues silently after all motion has ceased.

I told you it was hard to translate. But here's an example.

C.W. Nicol relates how a senior sensei explained zanshin in his book Moving Zen: Karate as a Way to Gentleness:

...Zanshin is comprised of two characters. The first one, 'zan,' means to remain, to continue. The second one, 'shin,' means heart or mind. When the movements of a kata are finished, do not think that the kata is finished, do not relax your attention and spirit. You must come to the closing position, keep your eyes ahead, your body and spirit ready for anything. You must be aware of all that is around you. Kata is not just a practice of movements, and neither is it a way of retreating into your own self. When you practice kata you must be acutely aware. You must have a mind like still water, reflecting all things. Finish your kata with zanshin, otherwise, no matter how brilliantly you perform it, it will be considered a failure.

It's easier to see than describe. Nicol reports that

From then on, I watched the teachers and high ranking black belts much more closely when they finished their kata. Their performance of kata flowed, and the flow of the kata did not end with the cessation of bodily movement. How difficult to catch this feeling, to explain it!...

With lower-ranking belts, even with most brown belts, the flow was cut off when the kata movements were completed, like a clockwork doll that had suddenly been switched off. Without good "kamae" or readiness at the beginning of the kata, and without zanshin at the end, the kata was only a physical exercise, and not a moving practice of Zen.

Some lines from the Tao Te Ching may help to explain the practical importance of zanshin:

People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning.
Then there will be no failure.

RECOVERY. The Senate passed its version of economic recovery legislation yesterday, which will now go to conference with the House. This would be the time to push for getting it right. Here's a simple action you can take today.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, we lost nearly 600,000 jobs in January and there's no end in sight. The Economic Policy Institute reports that there are now 4.1 job seekers for each available job.

OBJECTS OR EXPERIENCES. Which of the two are more likely to make people happy?

URGENT ANTARCTIC WORM UPDATE here. It makes its own antifreeze and goes into suspended animation when it dries up. How cool is that?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Kamae

Kendo practioners in upper and lower kamae positions. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day will include a discussion of a useful but hard to translate concept from the Japanese martial art and Zen tradition, which are kind of intertwined. It is El Cabrero's belief that some of these ideas can be helpful in making the world less violent and more just.

Today's word is kamae, which is sometimes translated as stance, posture or ready position, although there's a lot more to it. In a deeper sense, it refers to a state of calm alertness before action. It doesn't imply a fixed position or attitude or a pre-conceived rigid plan but rather a focused awareness prepared to respond to the moment.

C. W. Nicol, a British martial artist who studied karate in Japan in the early 1960s came close to it with these words describing the katas or forms of advanced students:

In perfect stillness, they exuded strength. I saw it, and I thought of herons, poised above a pool, ready to spear a fish; of high-soaring falcons ready to stoop; of a cat, sitting patiently by a mouse hole...

My own favorite description of it comes from Erich Fromm's discussion of hope:

It is neither passive waiting nor is it unrealistic forcing of circumstances that cannot occur. It is like the crouched tiger, which will jump only when the moment for jumping has come...

Without good kamae, one can miss opportunities for action (and in some cases, get clobbered in the bargain). As Hamlet said, "the readiness is all."

RECOVERING THE RECOVERY? The economic recovery bill cleared a major hurdle in the Senate yesterday, with a final vote expected for today. After that, the bill goes to conference where differences between the House and Senate versions will be reconciled.

The Senate version weakened some key provisions of the House bill that would affect those hardest hit by the recession. For more details of the differences, click here. Some of these defects may be improved in the final version, but that will depend in part on how much noise people make.

The American Friends Service Committee is still making a toll-free number to the Capitol switchboard available for those who want to support the bill. AFSC recommends a passage without delay and without reducing aid to families and states. It also opposes the flawed “E-Verify” measure and the $1 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The number is 1-800-473-6711.

THE S WORD is discussed here.

A NOD TO CHUCKIE D. Darwin, that is.

POSSIBLE ALZHEIMER'S BREAKTHROUGH? New research suggests that a naturally occuring protein can stop or reverse cognitive impairment in animals.

NOTE. It's been a long day on the road, so I'm scheduling this post to be published a few hours from this writing. Here's hoping nothing really bad happens between now and then.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Shoshin

Zen master Suzuki Roshi made the concept "beginner's mind" a common phrase in the US. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

There are a lot of great Japanese words that don't translate well directly into English. One that I like a lot is "shoshin," which literally kind of means "first mind" but is usually translated as "beginner's mind."

The word was made famous by Zen master Shunryu Suzuki's book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, where he said

If your mind is empty, it is ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.

The importance of shoshin is another lesson that got drummed into my head and other body parts over decades of practicing the martial arts and of sparring.

In training, some of the toughest and most dangerous people to spar with are not experienced martial artists--they are new people who walk in off the street. You kind of know what to expect from people who have been training a while--there are conventions everywhere, after all. But some of these new people would do wild and crazy things that would never have occurred to me. They can really catch you by surprise--thanks to having a beginner's mind.

I've often found that I actually fought better after I'd stopped training for a while and then went back. This was because the ties of old habits got weaker in the meantime and I wasn't as stuck in old ruts. Beginner's mind again.

Sometimes the Spousal Unit, La Cabra, will attack me with totally random kicks, punches and throws that look so bizarre that I can't defend against them because I don't recognize them as legitimate techniques. Ditto beginner's mind.

It's really easier to fight somebody when you know what they're going to do because they are creatures of habit. And it's easier for you to lose if you always fight the same way. The advantage of sparring with lots of good fighters is that they will continually force you to adapt and improve, provided you don't give up.

I think people who work for social justice could benefit from trying to keep a beginner's mind and approach each situation with a fresh start, even if it's just another chapter in a long drawn-out struggle. It's easy to defeat, dismiss, and label people and groups that get stuck in the same old rut.

As Henry David Thoreau put it in Walden,

It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves….The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!

A GOOD DEED FOR TODAY. Call your senators toll-free at 1-800-473-6711 and urge them to support President Obama's economic recovery proposal and not to make substantial cuts in programs that could help put the country back to work. The number is provided by the American Friends Service Committee.

WHAT HE SAID. Here's Paul Krugman talking sense on the economic recovery package.

THE RECESSION AND THE ELDERLY. It's hitting pretty hard, according to his issue brief from the Economic Policy Institute.

THE CHANGING FACE OF GREEN. Here's an interview with Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Misunderestimation

Beware of blue.

I started out the week at Goat Rope by suggesting that people who want to make the world a better place could do worse than take up martial arts, especially the ones that involve some kind of serious sparring, as a hobby. There are plenty of lessons there.

All week, I've been remembering various episodes from my long and inglorious career in the martial arts. It's funny, but I have a much better memory of the fights I lost than the fights I won. For one thing, there were way more of the former than the latter. For another, when you're really in the zone, there's no self-awareness and you may not even remember what you did. When I've asked my daughter specific questions about how she won tournament fights, she didn't know how to answer.

But you always remember the ones that went really bad.

I think my worst thumping came about due to the universe's sense of humor and the fatal flaw of underestimating an opponent. Years back, I was coaching kids at a tournament and told the main instructor not to give me an entry card under any circumstances, no matter what I said or did. I hadn't trained seriously in ages.

But after a while I started looking at the talent. I kept thinking "I can take these people!" There was one guy there in a blue gi (karate uniform) who I really wanted to fight. I'm a traditionalist and there was something vaguely offensive about a blue gi. I took it as axiomatic that I could, by definition, beat anyone in a blue gi.

I asked for the entry card...

When the black belts lined up, I asked God to please give the Mr. Blue Gi. Alas for me, God was taking calls that day and I got what I asked for.

I don't think I've ever been kicked or hit harder by anything before or since. He plated a solid front kick so deep in my solar plexus that I felt like I was picking his toenails out of my back for the next week or so. I went down. Then he did it again with the same result.

Breathing isn't all that interesting until you can't do it. Then it becomes fascinating. I think Dylan said it best: the moral of this story/the moral of this song/is simply that one should never be where one does not belong.

Any struggle or campaign is unpredictable. One should never assume it's going to be a cakewalk. Even if it wears a blue gi.

Experiences like that have taught me a lesson in gratitude. I've known some activists who get angry or frustrated when they don't get everything they want or only make small progress towards a goal. I always want to ask such people the following question: haven't you ever gotten your ass totally kicked? I'm happy any time that doesn't happen.

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS. President Obama signed a bill expanding access to the Children's Health Insurance Program to around four million new children. The bill also covers legal immigrants and allows states to offer dental health care to some eligible children who don't receive their main insurance through CHIP. Some of us have been working for this for a long time.

RECOVERY NOW. Here's an analysis of the job impact in every state of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

NOT THE BEST WEEK for coal. On the flip side, several groups filed amicus briefs on behalf of Massey Energy in the pending US Supreme Court case.

AMERICAN HUNGER. Food insecurity affects 1 in 8 Americans, according to this item.

URGENT FOSSIL WHALE UPDATE. Early ones apparently hunted in the water but gave birth on land.

URGENT GIANT CROCODILE-EATING FOSSIL SNAKE UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: LONG AS A GIANT SNAKE

Reversion to mean

Don't try this at home. Or anywhere else. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Sometime back in the 1990s, Jim Carrey was in a Saturday Night Live skit where he played an office worker who once got cheers from co-workers for telling someone "I'll see you in hell!" Because that worked so well one time, he said it over and over for the rest of his life in the most inappropriate situations.

It was a funny skit but that kind of thing happens a lot in real life. Sometimes we keep trying the same thing because it worked once or because it's the only thing we know how to do.

This was another life/strategy lesson that was drummed into my head and other body parts by sparring in the martial arts, which is kind of a theme this week. Here's how...

Senior students in a fighting dojo are a source of inspiration and terror. They provide encouragement and example, but they also routinely and without malice thrash junior students. This is regarded as something like a Christian duty, the theory being that they do it so other people won't be able to.

When I was a lowly green belt or so, one of the terrors of our dojo was a guy named Brooks. He was a nice guy but a fighting demon. Once when we were sparring I got really lucky and managed to throw a fast spinning back kick to his face. I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised. Luckily for me, he was mostly amused.

(It's a totally impractical kick that could get you killed in some situations, but it looks really cool if you can get away with it.)

After that, for a while I was just like the guy in the SNL skit if you substitute spinning back kick to the head for "I'll see you in hell."

As it happened, there was a tournament coming up. I thought I'd breeze through it with the kick. It worked once, right? You can probably predict the outcome. Let's just say that no trophies followed me home that day.

It never worked on Brooks again either...

Lighting does not often strike twice in the same place. And just because you get lucky once, it does not follow that you will again if you do the same thing. In statistics they call this reversion to the mean. A basketball player who routinely scores 20 points a game may sometimes go on a streak of high or low scores, but over time it averages out.

Enjoy life's spinning back kicks when you can get away with them--but don't count on them. It's better to stick to basics anyway.

DESPITE WHAT YOU MAY HAVE HEARD there's strong public support for an economic stimulus package.

REALITY CHECK. With all the noise about economic policy emanating from and about Washington these days, I highly recommend regularly visiting the site of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. I admit to being a policy wonk, but you don't have to be one to go there and look at the impact of existing and proposed legislation on ordinary people.

HEALTH CARE. Many struggling small businesses are cutting health insurance benefits as the economy sours.

ANOTHER CASUALTY OF THE RECESSION is green energy.

THIS SHOULD HAVE GONE IN YESTERDAY. WV Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin has decided to recuse himself from cases involving Massey Energy until the US Supreme Court rules on the situation. Benjamin was elected in 2004 with over $3 million from Massey CEO Don Blankenship. On more than one occasion, he was the deciding vote in cases favorable to Massey.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Eat bitter

Doh! Block print from the Bubishi, a Chinese martial arts manual. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

El Cabrero has often thought that those who want to make the world less violent and more just could do a lot worse than study and practice the martial arts. I'll go a step further and particularly recommend those arts which entail sparring with live opponents who are not trying to make you look good or enhance your self esteem.

There's nothing like getting your clock cleaned a few dozen (or hundred in my case) times by people who are really good at it to give you a sense of realism and pragmatism.

One great lesson you get by making a habit of sparring it that the mere fact that you want something to happen or not happen by itself has absolutely no bearing whatsoever one whether you can be successful. Success happens, if it does, by paying attention to what is going on in the moment and adapting your actions to openings as they occur. And by paying your dues.

Most people who have been successful in sparring (or in lots of real life endeavors to which it is analogous) have had to take some lumps along the way. The Chinese have two great expressions for this needed step. One is that one needs to "eat bitterness" before one can eat sweet. Another calls for "investing in loss."

I've done plenty of both. I remember once very early in my karate career when my old man observed a class in which I sparred with my first instructor. I have since lost track of the teacher and wonder to this day if he was really as good as I remember him to be or if I ever got anywhere near his level in later years. His technique seemed impossibly strong and precise, his katas or forms were crisp and powerful. And he was a bad dude when it came to sparring.

On that particular occasion, we bowed as usual and he proceeded to mop the floor with me. I probably have been clobbered worse many times since then, but I can't remember when.

After it was all over, my dad said "You really had him worried in the first few minutes."

"Really?" I said, desperate for any encouragement.

"Yeah. He thought he'd killed you."

STIMULUS ACTION ALERT: the American Friends Service Committee is urging people to call their US senators and urge them to prevent the derailment of President Obama's stimulus proposal, which is facing hard opposition. AFSC is also urging that the Senate reject a flawed and error-prone anti-immigrant measure called E-verify. The toll free number is 1-800-473-6711. To find your senators, click here.

El Cabrero and amigos will be holding a public meeting in Charleston, WV tonight on the subject.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, Hooverism lives. And while the economy tanks, welfare rolls remain at or near their lowest levels in 40 years.

DYSTOPIA. Here's an abstract from an article from the Jan. 26 New Yorker about those who see gloom and doom on the horizon. It's worth tracking down the full article.

GETTING TO UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. This article, also from the New Yorker, discusses getting there from here.

MALLED. America's love affair with shopping malls is in the post-honeymoon phase.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Medicine for the mind

Daruma dolls for everyone! Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Lately Goat Rope has been about Buddhist lore, although you'll also find links and comments about current events. For the last week or so, the focus has been on legends about the figure of Bodhidharma or Daruma, who is said to have brought Zen from India to China and is also associated with the martial arts.

While the legends show Daruma as a pretty fierce figure, he has become a beloved figure in Japanese popular culture and his stylized image is featured in dolls, toys, kites, tops and many other forms.

As mentioned yesterday, one particularly popular form is the Daruma okiagari doll, which bounces back up when it has been pushed over, in accord with the popular saying, "seven falls, eight rises."

H. Neill McFarland in his book Daruma: The Founder of Zen in Japanese Art and Popular Culture explains the deeper meaning of both the toy and the saying this way:

The tactics thought to be implicit in this combination of image and adage, though also enigmatic, are of the essence of Asian philosophy and strategy, either for coping with life's vicissitudes or for practicing the martial arts. Maintain a low center of gravity. This enables one to rise up repeatedly, utilizing the momentum generated by the act of falling. Yield without breaking. Like the supple bamboo bending before the wind, one may practice the resistance of nonresistance (muteiko no teiko).

Thus, one who knows and ponders the cryptic little motto "Seven falls, eight rises" may view the bobbing motion of an okiagari Daruma as a symbolic enactment of life's experiences and contrasts--the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the successes and failures--and prepare to face them with perseverance and resilience. For this purpose, Daruma is said to be a kind of medicine for the mind (shinyaku).

STIMULATING. The economic recovery package unveiled by the US House yesterday actually does a lot of the things this blog has been screaming for over the past few years.

LESS WORK FOR MORE WORKERS. The number of involuntary part-time workers has doubled in the last year, according to the latest snapshot by the Economic Policy Institute.

SMILE AWAY. It might help.

FRIENDLY SKIES? It's hard to believe that all 155 passengers survived a flight that crash landed in the Hudson River.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Don't mess with monks

Painting from wall of Shaolin Temple. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Lately, Goat Rope has been musing on topics related to Buddhism. While El Cabrero is not a card-carrying Buddhist, that tradition has been a big influence on my life from early childhood.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I grew up around some Buddhist artifacts thanks to some wandering grandparents and later became interested in fighting arts that trace themselves back to Bodhidharma, a legendary Indian monk said to have brought Chan or Zen Buddhism to China.

While there is probably no historical basis to claims that Bodhidharma himself taught anything like kung fu to the monks at Shaolin, there has long been an affinity between Buddhism and the fighting arts, which may seem strange to people familiar with the Buddhism's teachings about nonviolence an unfamiliar with the non-aggressive nature of traditional martial arts. What's up?

First, the Buddha himself came from the Kshatriya or warrior caste and probably excelled in the appropriate arts. His teachings about nonviolence sound more like one who has gone beyond it than one who was never capable of it to start with. It is also possible that Bodhidharma himself came from the same social group.

Second, both were probably steeped in yogic traditions, which combined physical exercises with breathing methods and mental discipline. Such practices are common in the martial arts as well.

Third, travel in those days was no picnic, especially going from India to China, whether the route was via the ocean or over the mountains. Even pacific travelers either had to be capable of protecting themselves or relied on those who could. And travel means influence between cultures and mutual learning.

Fourth, the monks at Shaolin in the years after Bodhidharma's alleged arrival did acquire a reputation as fierce fighters when the need arose, thus inspiring any number of Chinese movies.

Finally, Zen's emphasis on mental discipline has proven to be an asset to those who practice martial arts for either personal cultivation or more serious situations.

So here's to Bodhidharma, who is at least the patron saint, if not the founder, of those traditions.

UNEMPLOYMENT JUMPS AGAIN. If you thought the November numbers were bad, check out December's.

ON THAT NOTE, this snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute looks at how long a labor market recovery might take. Short version: too long unless something gets done.

ONE THING THAT WOULD HELP would be reforming unemployment benefits to cover part time workers, as this report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

MORAL JU JITSU

Dojo practice in Japan, circa 1920, courtesy of wikipedia.

The theme at Goat Rope lately is about applying principles from the martial arts to working and writing to achieve social change or social conservation. You'll also find links and comments about current events.

In yesterday's post, I talked a little about ju jitsu, moral, political and Brazilian. Today's will pick up on the latter. I urge non-martial artists to bear with me since I honestly believe these strategies represent the last best hope of making things a little less bad.

In the 1990s, a revolution occurred in the martial arts world as a result of full contact matches with very few rules that pitted people from different fighting styles against each other. Overwhelmingly, the winners were grapplers trained in or influenced by Brazilian ju jitsu, a style widely associated with the Gracie family.

For an old karate dinosaur like El Cabrero, this was sooo not cool. It really wasn't fair. People who were really formidable in arts based on striking but knew nothing else were helpless against ju jitsu fighters. And the weird thing is, the ju jitsu guys would win in a way that left no room for doubt but which didn't hurt their opponents at all, aside from wounded pride.

How bad was it? Let's just say that if you pitted a real good boxer or striker with years of experience and no knowledge of grappling against a rookie who's been practicing ju jitsu for six months, the smart money is on the rookie.

Part of the reason for that is Darwinian. When critters are exposed to a threat for which they have not evolved defenses, they're toast unless and until they adapt. But part of the reason is a refined strategy which is really a development of the ideas of classical martial arts. Like all styles, ju jitsu uses the force of the opponent and attacks weak spots. But it does something more.

Brazilian ju jitsu is based on the idea that a struggle has different phases (some would say ranges or levels) and positions. Each phase or level requires a different set of skills. Brazilian stylists will try to take the fight to a phase or level where their opponent's strengths are useless. Once there, they position themselves in a such a way that the opponent is rendered harmless and can be persuaded to give up (often by the application of a submission technique).

Here's an illustration. A boxer can be dangerous--standing up. On the ground, not so much. As Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido, put it,

Even the most powerful human being has a limited sphere of strength. Draw him outside of that sphere and into your own, and his strength will dissipate.

Summary: when engaged in a struggle with powerful opponents to make things less bad, don't engage them where and when they are strongest--change the level. Take the game to a place where the odds are better.

Here's a specific example. Several years ago, there was an incident of police brutality with racial overtones in a small rural community. The local paper and Powers That Were ignored it and tried to cover it up. We changed the level and took the story to statewide media outlets and notified people all over the country. After that, they couldn't ignore it any more and there was a pretty decent outcome.

A general example. Often in a democracy, when a bureaucracy of whatever kind does something that is tacky and/or harms people with less power, it usually likes to do so quietly. You can change the level by making it public. Sometimes you can change the level by questioning the legality of a policy, sometimes by building coalitions, sometimes by raising the noise level, or some combination thereof.

In a word, don't play their game. Make them play yours. Every situation is unique, but the principles, like the Dude, abide.

"PLASTICS." In the classic film The Graduate, that sage advice was given to Dustin Hoffman's character. I'm not sure how much that would help now. As the Economic Policy Institute's latest snapshot reveals, this month's new college graduates will face a challenging job market.

HOT TIMES. The latest issue of Nature summarizes the evidence on climate change. Here are the opening lines:

A comprehensive analysis of trends in tens of thousands of biological and physical systems has provided more evidence to bolster the near-universal view that man-made climate change is altering the behaviour of plants, animals, rivers and more.

HUNGRY PLANET. Several experts on the world food crisis weigh in on the problem in Newsweek. Some of them make sense.

UNION PREMIUM. A new report from the WV Center on Budget and Policy and the Center for Economic and Policy Research highlights the benefits of union membership.

CALMER THAN YOU ARE. On a positive note, research indicates that happiness can be learned if we chill out a little.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

LET'S ROLL

Brazilian ju jitsu in action, courtesy of wikipedia.

The theme at Goat Rope lately has been applying ideas from the martial arts to working and writing for social change and social preservation. There are also news items and comments about current events.

Today's "lesson" comes from ju jitsu, an art that's so old it's new. It began as an art practiced by the Japanese samurai for centuries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was the source of both judo and aikido. Judo, in turn, influenced the development of a particularly effective variation known as Brazilian ju jitsu.

The ju in both means something like gentle, pliable or flexible (jitsu means technique or art and do means way as in something practiced as an end in itself). But don't make the mistake of confusing gentleness with weakness. It is rather the opposite of relying on strength alone.

I found one of the best summaries of strategy, broadly conceived, in the book Mastering JuJitsu by Renzo Gracie and John Danaher. This approach applies socially as well as physically:

The guiding principle behind ju is the idea of a weaker (gentler) force overcoming a stronger force through the application of technique, or jitsu, rather than strength and aggression. Reduced to its core, jujitsu is the employment of intelligence and skill to overcome brute strength and aggression...This should not be misunderstood as a notion of gentleness or softness. Strength is used in jujitsu. It can definitely help to be strong, but strength is used in an intelligent, rational manner as part of a strategy guided by efficient technique. Rather than confront strength with strength, jujutsu confronts strength with efficient technique and strategy so that the weaker fighter can attain victory. In practice, this means applying a high percentage of your total strength to a low percentage of your opponent's strength.

A simple illustration can illustrate this principle...if a weaker fighter can attack a vulnerable part of his opponent's body (such as the neck or joints) with a greater strength than his opponent can defend it with, he is effectively stronger than his opponent, even if his overall strength is less. This is the theoretical basis of jujitsu conveyed by ju. Technically skilled fighters can then efficiently apply what strength they have in a way that can cause sufficient damage to end the fight.

A way to understand the meaning that lies behind ju comes from an analysis of the phrase ju yoku sei go, which translates as softness controls hardness. This phrase conveys the idea of a smaller force initially giving way or yielding to a stronger force to eventually overcome it. Thus, it amounts to the use of strategy, one that resists strength with technique, and not additional strength.

By the way, Gandhi once described the method of nonviolent action as "moral ju jitsu," as have a number of other theorists and practitioners of nonviolent action. Similarly, the term "political ju jitsu" has become pretty popular as well, as any internet keyword search will reveal.

So how do you do it? There are probably almost as many ways as there are situations. More about that tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's a perfect example:

LOSING A SEAT. Here's AP on Tuesday's WV Supreme Court primary election outcome. Photographs of justice Spike Maynard vacationing in Monaco with Massey CEO Don Blankenship (after the court agreed to hear a Massey appeal they were later to win and after Blankenship spent millions to buy another seat on the court in 2004) created an opportunity for people who at least want to pretend we have a legal system to express their disapproval.

MYANMAR. For those interested in trying to help the Burmese people after catastrophic flooding, here's info on the American Friends Service Committee's response.

FOOD. This item argues that responding to the world food crisis will require sustainable agriculture rather than another green revolution.

CHEW ON THIS. On a similar note, here's an interview with Raj Patel, author of Starved and Stuffed: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System on how messed up current arrangements are.

SPEAKING OF FOOD, a new study with monkeys shows that stress leads to over-eating.

HOLD THE BAPTISM ON THE ALIENS. The Vatican's chief astronomer says life could exist in outer space and that some aliens may not have our original sin thing going on.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

BALANCE

Caption: Judo throw (osoto-gari), courtesy of wikipedia.

The theme at Goat Rope lately is applying some ideas from the martial arts to working and writing for social change or social conservation. You'll also find links and comments about current events. If this is your first visit, please click on earlier entries.

One of the most central concepts in many martial arts is that of balance. It's also an important thing to keep in mind when working to change or preserve things.

In martial arts, at the very least it's hard to deliver effective techniques when you're off balance. More to the point, any time you are off balance--whether you do it yourself or someone or some thing does it to you--you can fall or be thrown. Hard.

To lose balance is to lose self control. To lose self control in a serious situation is to risk losing everything.

(Have you ever noticed that a lot of folks who want to change things have serious self control issues? This is probably going to sound really bad, but when I'm deciding which individuals and groups I'm going to work with, I tend to divide them into those with and without self control and avoid the latter.)

You don't need to be grappling with a physical opponent to lose your balance. You can lose it under the influence of anger, fear, ideology,or even a conviction of being right. Those things impede a person from responding adequately to cues from others or the environment. In writing, people lose balance by venting inappropriately, exaggerating, inflating rhetoric, twisting facts and logic, and using hyperbole.

I knew the US was going to be in really BIG trouble post 9/11 when then Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said US military policy was going to be "forward leaning." To be forward leaning is to be off balance; to be off balance is to be vulnerable to over-reaching. Over reaching means there's a good chance of being thrown, falling--or in this case, leaping--into a quagmire.

In judo, the art of breaking the opponent's balance is called kuzushi, which can be the first step to victory. But, as with all this, your opponents can do all this to you.

I also remember being involved in some serious labor struggles several years back. We used to have some pretty big ones in WV. It often happened that during a strike or lockout, companies would import "goon guards," as they were sometimes unaffectionately called, from out of state. It wasn't unusual for them to try to provoke union members or their families into losing their "balance" and doing things that could discredit their cause.

That's a classical example of kuzushi in action. The trick is not to take the bait.

I'll close for today with a couple of suggestions straight from judo:

*Any time one's opponent overreaches and loses balance, an opportunity exists. I've spent a lot of time waiting for such moments. As Tom Petty sang, the waiting IS the hardest part. It can take years.

*It's always a good idea to figure out what your opponent would like you to do--and then not do it.

HOW DOES YOUR LIST COMPARE? Here's a good collection of Bush administration disasters. Which ones were left out?

INVISIBLE HAND VS. GREEN THUMB. This item from Scientific American shows the flaws in neo-classical economic theory which are particularly telling in dealing with things like climate change.

SPEAKING OF CLIMATE CHANGE, I hope these guys are wrong. They probably do too.

JUST ONE COMMENT about the WV primary. It looks like Massey Energy just lost a friend on the state Supreme Court with the defeat of justice Spike Maynard. (Note any similarity between this story and the theme of today's post is purely coincidental. But that's what I'm talking about).

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

DEFENSIVE THINKING

Caption: Illustration from the Bubishi, an anonymous Chinese martial arts text of the 18th or 19th century sometimes referred to as "the bible of karate."

For the last two weeks, the theme here has been about writing to change things that should be changed or preserve things that should be preserved. There's also a daily dose of links and comments about current events.

I'd like to close off the series by taking some lessons from the martial arts and applying them to the subject of writing and working for social change or preservation. Why martial arts? Because unlike many things, they actually work and have proven themselves over the centuries in many difficult situations.

In trying to make things better, we are often faced with more powerful opponents. But the strategies developed by these arts can be great equalizers, provided people focus the energy they have at the right time and place.

Here's the first thing: think, write and act defensively.

Most martial artists spend a good bit of time sparring with highly skilled opponents. Sometimes it can get rough. But one invaluable lesson you get from that kind of practice fighting is immediate feedback. You learn "If I do this, they can do that" and vice versa.

Even if your sparring partner is your best friend, it is their sacred duty to nail you if you leave yourself open. It's your sacred duty to do the same, preferably before they nail you. After a while, you should start automatically acting in ways that create the smallest possible opening or opportunity for an opponent to attack (not to mention take advantage of any opening that occurs).

I remember when I first joined my current karate club over 30 years ago. It's a fighting dojo. While we're easy on kids and beginners, consenting experienced adults sometimes ramp it up. I was an intermediate student fighting a female black belt. I decided to dazzle her with my high kicking ability. She responded by kicking me in the groin while my foot was sailing around at head level.

I told you it could get rough. I wasn't expecting a move like that and hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. (Most dojos don't allow groin kicks in sparring, but ours did at the time. It was a great way of keeping kickers honest.)

That was one of the best lessons I ever had, although it didn't feel like it at the time. I've kicked a lot of people since then (recreationally and gently, for the most part) but I've been pretty careful about leaving myself open in that particular way. Thanks O., wherever you are! Sort of.

Similarly, when I was trying to learn the grappling arts of judo and jiu jitsu, I learned pretty quickly that if I let the opponent get behind me, I could expect to choked; if my balance was broken, I could expect to be thrown; and if my arm or leg was extended, it would be joint-locked.

This is something that people interested in trying to change things should always keep in mind and ask themselves at all times: if I say, do, or write this, what could an unsympathetic opponent do?

The idea is to present as small a target as possible--even better no target at all. If you don't, then don't be surprised if they respond in a way that can discredit and dismiss you and the change you are hoping to achieve.

That's just the way it works.

I've seen several groups adopt some ill-advised course of action, get clobbered for it, and then say "No fair!" Whoever said it was?

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE. Could contemporary economic and environmental ills push us in a more sustainable direction?

SPEAKING OF WHICH, Bill McKibben argues here that it's getting pretty close to now or never to get there. The alternative is unacceptable.

MOTHER'S DAY came and went, but pro-family policies haven't got here yet.

TRAUMA ON THE BRAIN. New research sheds light on the strenght and persistence of traumatic memories.

SPEAKING OF THE BRAIN, this article blames its engineering on some of our shortcomings.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED