The Art of Fighting Without Fighting - Geoff Thompson, Sztuki Walk(Martial Arts), Geoff Thompson Collection
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Introduction
As the drunk was almost upon him he prepared to demonstrate
his art in the ultimate arena, but before he could rise from his
seat the passenger in front of him stood up and engaged the
drunk jovially. 'Hey man, what's up with you? I bet you've
been drinking in the bar all day, haven't you? You look like a
man with problems. Here, come and sit down with me, there's
no need to be abusive. No one on this train wants to fight with
you.'
The Aikido man watched in awe as the passenger skillfully
talked the drunken man down from his rage. Within minutes
the drunk was pouring his heart out to the passenger about how
his life had taken a downward turn and how he had fallen on
hard times. It wasn't long before the drunk had tears streaming
down his face. The Aikido man, somewhat ashamed thought to
himself 'That's Aikido!'. He realised in that instant that the
passenger with a comforting arm around the sobbing drunk was
demonstrating Aikido, and all martial art, in it highest form.
There was once a very famous Aikido player in Japan who spent
his whole life studying Usheba's legendary art. Although he had
dedicated his whole existence to this beautiful art he had never
actually had occasion to test it in a real life situation against a
determined attacker, someone intent on hurting him. Being a
moralistic kind of person he realised that it would be very bad
karma to actually go out and pick a fight just to test his art so he
was forced to wait until a suitable occasion presented itself.
Naively, he longed for the day when he was attacked so that he
could prove to himself that Aikido was powerful outside of the
controlled walls of the dojo.
The more he trained, the more his obsession for validation grew
until one day, travelling home from work on a local commuter
train, a potential situation did present itself -an overtly drunk and
aggressive man boarded his train and almost immediately started
verbally abusing the other passengers.
Why have I written this book? Why have I written a book about
the art of fighting without fighting when my claim to fame is
probably the fact that I have been in over 300 street fights,
where I used a physical response to neutralise my enemy. Why
write a book about avoidance when it is obviously so simple to
finish a fight with the use of a physical attack? Indeed why
write it when my whole reputation as a realist, as a martial arts
cross trainer, as a blood and snot mat man may be risked by the
endeavor? The reason is simple: violence is not the answer! It
may solve some of the problems in the short term but it will
create a lot more in the long term. I know -I've been there. I
was, as they say, 'that soldier'.
It took me nine years of constant violence and many more of
soul-searching to realise this truth and because so much has
happened to me in my post-'door' years, my attitude and
'This is it,' the Aikido man thought to himself, 'this is my chance
to test my art.'
He sat waiting for the abusive passenger to reach him. It was
inevitable that he would: he was making his way down the
carriage abusing everyone in his path. The drunk got closer and
closer to the Aikido man, and the closer he got the louder and
more aggressive he became. Most of the other passengers
recoiled in fear of being attacked by the drunk. However, the
Aikido man couldn't wait for his turn, so that he could prove to
himself and everyone else, the effectiveness of his art. The drunk
got closer and louder. The Aikido man made ready for the
seemingly inevitable assault -he readied himself for a bloody
encounter.
opinion has changed. At my most brutal I justified violence, to
myself, to those I taught and to those I spoke to. I was even
prepared to use verbal violence to substantiate my views. That
was how lost I was. But I' m not at all ashamed of that, my views
may have been distorted then but I did genuinely believe them. I
was never a bad person, it's just that my beliefs were governed by
my limited knowledge, which left me somewhat Neanderthal.
term. There has to be another solution. At this moment in
time I cannot tell you what that solution is, only that
knocking a guy unconscious and doing a 56 move kata on
his head is not it. Not if we are ever going to survive as a
species and learn to live in peace with one another. I spend
my time now trying to avoid violence and trying to develop
alternatives to taking an opponent off the planet with a
practiced right cross. Some of the stuff is good too, it works,
it will at least help keep some of the antagonists at bay until
we can find a better alternative.
As my knowledge has grown so has my intellect and confidence,
this has allowed me a new belief -a belief that will keep changing
as long I grow. I can see it all now. I can see where I fit into the
scheme of things. I can see the futility of violence and the pain of
violent people. I can see that fighting on the pavement arena is
war in microcosm and that wars destroy worlds. I know now that
violence is not the answer, in the short term or the long
But, I hear you cry, what about those who won't let you
avoid, escape, dissuade, loophole, posture, the ones that not
only take you to the doorway of violence but want to kick it
open and enter the arena and no amount of talk or
negotiation is going to stop them. What are we to do with or
to them? Well, this is where my 'non-violence' theorem
becomes a little contradictory, because if we are forced into a
physical response and if we do not fight back, our species is
as good as dead.
I, like most, have a family to protect and I will protect by
whatever means fair or foul. Because I am trying to become
a better person, and because I am desperately trying to lose
violence from my life, I have been struggling with the fact
that, occasionally when it is unavoidable, I may still have to
employ violence, if only to keep the peace. I am constantly
struggling with the fact that this still feels wrong to me, but
my, our, survival is at stake. When I was in America last
year (1997) I was teaching with Benny 'the jet' Urquidiz and
I asked him whether he thought, given the fact that we were
both trying to be Christian people, you could ever justify the
use of violence. He told me that he believed violence was
wrong, but If someone left you no other option other than to
hit him, then it was their karma, it was meant to be. He said
that he felt they were sent by God to be taught a lesson and
he would give that lesson as gently as possible.
can confidently employ violence but who chooses not to
because I feel it is not the answer. Most people's opinions are
born from experiencing only one of these perspectives.
As a nightclub doorman I was often faced by violence that
terrified me, woundings that revolted me and conduct that
chilled me to the bone. However, what really sickened me -
even more than the congealed blood and smashed teeth of an
adversary -was the absolute hypocrisy of this fickle society.
Facing adversity did show me the beauty of amity but it took
time, many savage confrontations and much self-education,
before I could drag myself kicking and screaming into a
better existence. Unfortunately, even then I could not find a
preferable solution to the threat of immediate attack than that
of counter-attack. I am aware that the state might call my
actions criminal, but how do they rationalise their own acts
of violence? Perhaps by calling them law? I teach many
strategies to evade attack; avoidance, escape, verbal
dissuasion, loopholing and posturing. But what do you do
when all of these techniques have been exhausted and you
are still facing an adversary that wants to step outside the law
and attack you? You are left with a choice, either become the
hammer or the anvil -hurt or be hurt, kill or be killed. Does
that sound brutal? Are these the words of an uneducated
nightclub thug? How would you deal with the situation?
How would your peers deal with it? Those in government?
Those with power?
Some people need a poke in the eye to show them the right
direction, others simply need pointing in the right direction.
It is a question of having the wisdom to know when to point
and when to poke. To some in society violence is a
language, a way of communication - a very primitive
language -but a means of discourse nonetheless. If you don't
speak to them in their own tongue, then they will not
understand you. This is where the contention begins.
So, we have a contradiction in play here: violence is wrong
but sometimes we have to employ it. I know that the
uninitiated are already up in arms, probably scribbling away
discontent to the letters page as we speak. I truly understand
how they feel, because I feel the same way, but I fear that
they will never be convinced by words, and their experience
of life is often not broad enough to give them another
perspective. Their truth for a completely violence-free world
is as limited by their finite perspective, as mine was as a
nightclub doorman. I needed to experience the hope of non-
violence to appreciate its potential. They probably need to
experience violence to appreciate its necessity as an antidote
in a world where the species is lowly evolved.
I have a varied background in these matters. I have
experienced violence, pre-bouncer, as a scared young man
who could only suffer in silence. I have also experienced
violence as man who could confidently counter it with
greater violence and I now experience a violent world as
man who
Without wishing to go into politics and the rights and
wrongs of what is going on in the world, I will offer an
example of how they, the leaders of the free world, the
highbrow of humanity, deal with potentially violent
situations that will not go away. The world recently found
itself in a very threatening
situation with a foreign leader, a threat that could potentially
destroy the world and effect many other planets in our solar
system. The United Nations, the immune system of the
world, tried to avoid a violent confrontation by mediation.
The UN tried to escape a violent situation with compromise,
they 'loopholed' by trying to offer 'the threat' honourable
alternatives to war, they 'postured' by threatening war, (even
flying bomber planes over his country in a threatening
manner). They absolutely exhausted mediation. When it all
failed, what did the United Nation do, what did they consider
justifiable, though unfortunate, what did they greatest minds
in the free world agree upon when all their avoidance
techniques did not work? WAR! War was what they agreed
upon! War: the greatest expression of violence known to
man, where thousands of men, women and children are
killed and maimed. The UN told this leader in no uncertain
terms that they were prepared to talk to him, that they
wanted to avoid war, that they wanted to find an alternative
to bloodshed but the bottom line was, if he did not comply,
they would kill him and his people!'
not so lucky: three lost their lives, a couple their marbles and
yet another lost the sight in one eye to a glass-wielding
psychopath.
Psychologically however my wounds were less superfluous.
Overexposure to the brutality of people left me temporarily
paranoid, cynical and often very
violent. I could see only
physical solutions to life's many
disputes. Punching an adversary
unconscious after an argument
was, to me, as perfunctory as a
mint after dinner. It was never
gratuitous, I hated fighting, it
was survival, and that was all.
In my world violence was a
plumber's wrench -no more than
that. This behaviour was
acceptable, even expectable but
in civvy street, me and my kind
were brandished Neanderthal.
So when I finally transcended
the door' there was a time of
readjustment, of trying to locate
my place in a capricious society
where doormen were seen as
vogue in times of trouble and
vague in times of peace.
The immune system recognises cancerous cells, it knows
that one cancerous cell can destroy the whole body if it is not
killed, so it sends out killer T-cells to assassinate the
threatening cell. Ugly, but necessary if you want the body,
and the species to survive.
As for me working with violence? Physically the toll was
bearable, if not a little hideous. My nose, broken in three
places (I'll never go to those places again!) stab scars in my
head, broken knuckles and fingers and a cauliflower ear that
could win a horticultural ribbon. But some of my friends
were
I was frequently informed by those who had not met
violence down a dark alley (and it's too easy to say when you
haven't 'been there'), that violence was not the answer -a
view
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