Inside Nihon Goshin Aikido ~ #58
5 January 2018
Inside This Edition:
- New Article
- New Year
- Cool Videos/ Old Pictures/ Archived Newsletters/ Mystery Articles of Interest
New Article: The Tres Mal Hombres ~ The 3 Bad Guy Templates Click to read about Bubba Walmart, Tommy Target and Freddy Forever 21 (the 3 bad guy templates), and how they aproach an altercation. Are we prepared for a standoff with all three of these bad guy templates?
New Year: 2018 sounds like a good year, but who can tell? As I get older, I begin to think in terms of decades. I believe that this decade has a lot of 'hope' going for it.
Speaking of "hope" ~ I hope your New Year is getting off to a good start.
Cool Video: Last month I mentioned Sense Andrade as a former student of Mr. Bowe's (from the 1960s) who is doing his own Aikido thing now ~ which combines standing and ground fighting in the aikido tradition. As fate would have it, David Parker, his senior student sent me some information on a new book Sensei Andrade is publishing. The book is titled, "Aikido's Hidden Ground Techniques." There is a DVD that comes with the book that is done quite well. I have included an excerpt here ~ and you can see strong lineage to standing Nihon Goshin Aikido principles ~ and great ground transitions ~ which keep that same feel. It is a firm amalgamation of a natural fighting style that covers both standing and ground.
Off topic?
A common theme running through the news has been a near-nightly and generally interesting debate on illegal immigration in our country, its impact, and potential solutions to it. On that topic, I recently came across a transcript of a 14 year old speech given by a former governor of Colorado that I found shocking. The title of the speech was "If I Wanted to Destroy America." The title is provactive enough, but the content is worse. In the speech, Richard Lamm, discussed steps he would take to actually do destroy the country ~ using immigration as his choice battlefield. I have included the transcript here. There are lots of familiar themes running through that speech. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it is disconcerting to hear our elected officials, and the press speak in terms actually suggested by Lamm. Speech Follows. Thoughts?
In 2004, Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado, addressed a conference sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington.
Lamm: “I have a secret plan to destroy America. If you believe, as many do, that America is too smug, too white bread, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let’s destroy America. It is not that hard to do. History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” Here is my plan:
1. We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country. History shows, in my opinion, that no nation can survive the tension, conflict and antagonism of two competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. One scholar, Seymour Martin Lipset, put it this way: “The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon – all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with its Basques, Bretons and Corsicans.”
2. I would then invent “multiculturalism” and encourage immigrants to maintain their own culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal: that there are no cultural differences that are important. I would declare it an article of faith that the black and Hispanic dropout rate is only due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out-of-bounds.
3. We can make the United States a “Hispanic Quebec” without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently, “The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved, not by tolerance, but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically, and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.” I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with a salad bowl metaphor. It is important to insure that we have various cultural sub-groups living in America reinforcing their differences, rather than Americans emphasizing their similarities.
4. Having done all this, I would make our fastest-growing demographic group the least educated – I would add a second underclass, un-assimilated, under-educated and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50 percent dropout rate from school.
5. I would then get the big foundations and big business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of victimology. I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was all the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population. I would establish dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would “celebrate diversity.” “Diversity” is a wonderfully seductive word. It stresses differences rather than commonalities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other – that is, when they are not killing each other. A “diverse,” peaceful or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together, and we can take advantage of this myopia.
Look at the ancient Greeks. Dorf’s “World History” tells us: “The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus, and all Greeks venerated the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet, all of these bonds together were not strong enough to overcome two factors … (local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions …)” If we can put the emphasis on the “pluribus,” instead of the “unum,” we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.
6. Then I would place all these subjects off-limits – make it taboo to talk about. I would find a word similar to “heretic” in the 16th century – that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like “racist”, “xenophobe” halt argument and conversation. Having made America a bilingual-bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of “victimology,” I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra – “because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good.” I would make every individual immigrant sympatric and ignore the cumulative impact.
7. Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson’s book “Mexifornia” – this book is dangerous; it exposes my plan to destroy America. So please, please – if you feel that America deserves to be destroyed – please, please – don’t buy this book! This guy is on to my plan.”
Whew ~ reading that makes me shiver, and reminds me of this quotation. “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Noam Chomsky, American linguist and U.S. media and foreign policy critic.
Click Here for A Random Archived "Inside Nihon Goshin Aikido" Newsletter Edition
Mystery Articles of Interest
Let's meet together on the mat ~ and soon!
All the best,
Jonathan Wilson
Ngaexperience.com
This is a video of one of Shihan Bowe’s earliest students, Jose Andrade; a Cuban immigrant and early adult Nihon Goshin Aikido school member. At some point, he started his own style of Aikido (that does not distinguish between fighting standing or on the ground), and runs a dojo in Orlando Florida. We featured this video last month, but wanted to repost it here as a reference for the video we are featuring this month.
These are not the Ki techniques you are
looking for.
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Unless otherwise stated, the author’s views, musings, and opinions do not necessarily reflect the attitude of leadership within any of the various Nihon Goshin Aikido associations, or unaffiliated Nihon Goshin Aikido dojos.
Random Funny Video
Because So Many People Decide to Join A Gym As A New Year’s Resolution.
When a punch is thrown from the ground up, through the hips, through the core, through the shoulder, and not with the arms ~ you will get unfathomable power. One of these guys understands this. The other guy does not understand this, and does not defend himself properly.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.
Click here for a list of Nihon Goshin Aikido Dojos ~ and begin training with us today!
This is another video from Jose Andrade in which Aikido (with a decidedly Nihon Goshin Aikido influence) is combined with equal ground applications. If we ever adopted a ground curriculum to Nihon Goshin Aikido, I could see it following similar principles of movement demonstrated in this video.