KM & Honour

Gukkor

Personally, the system itself seems very practical and effective to me. My only major concern about Krav Maga is its seeming disdain for honor. Honor is the difference between the one picking the fight and the one defending himself or others. Honor is what seperates proper use of force from improper use. It isn't a weakness anymore than any other aspect of morality.

Part of the problem seems to be that the philosophy of KM associates honor with fairness. This isn't necessarily true. An honorable fighter follows the rules of combat if such rules are established. If one is a assaulted on the streets, there are no real rules outside of one's personal morality, so it isn't dishonorable to target certain areas or use a weapon if one is on-hand. There's being honorable, and then there's being stupid.

As for running away, that depends on the situation. If an aggressor is simply taunting you, there's no reason to fight; that's not actually running away so much as it is just not fighiting. If, on the other hand, the aggressor actually attacked you but you successfully fended him off, you still aren't running away if you leave the scene. The enemy's disabled, at least in the immediate sense, and you've thus won the fight. How could it be cowardly or dishonorable to leave the scene of a fight that's already been decided? However, if someone is attempting to harm an innocent and you have the opportunity to defend them, THAT is when it would be dishonorable to run away (for me, at least).

Martial artists, regardless of their particular style, have an obligation to use their skills responsibly and in a way that makes the world a better place. That includes protecting those who can't protect themselves when the opportunity presents itself. Take away this perspective, as KM seems to do, and you introduce the very real risk that the techniques will be used for less ethical purposes than mere self-defense.

petals

I heard this guy on Spin sounds interesting. He was talking bout how they put the student in the situations that may occur on the street!

Baggio...

Gukkor wrote: »

Personally, the system itself seems very practical and effective to me. My only major concern about Krav Maga is its seeming disdain for honor. Honor is the difference between the one picking the fight and the one defending himself or others. Honor is what seperates proper use of force from improper use. It isn't a weakness anymore than any other aspect of morality.

Personally, I don't see why people need "traditional martial arts" in order to be an honorable person, or fulfill this so called "spiritual void". I consider myself to be relatively honorable person (or try to be) and get my "spirituality" from within.

While I don't train in Krav Maga I've still met a lot of guys who do. And they are all good decent fellas, and are doing fine without the whole "way of bushido" thing.

Colm_OReilly

Don't repost on threads 2 years old FFS!

Start a new thread!

Original thread in question: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=205266

Baggio...

Sorry Colm, I had no idea it was that old....