Mc Dojo

Vox took a momentary break from whining about SF publishing and the Jaba like creatures in the industry that don't like him anymore.  When he posts about Sci-Fi it's hard not to picture Vox as Golem slinking behind a herd of Visigoths making their way from the Weight Watchers meeting across the parking lot to the All You Can Eat Old Country Buffet sniveling; "precious, precious, my preciououousssss, see how right I am?". 

I have no doubt that Vox is right.  None at all.  He is very smart and good at recognizing trends.  It starts to grate on the nerves after awhile.  Not his being right, the whining about it. Anyway Vox decided  to talk about something different, the Self Defense industry. 

There are a couple of ways you can learn how to fight.  The first way is to go out and start fights with people.  You hit them, they hit you.  Eventually you will learn how to hit them more and harder than they hit you.  This is a long hard and somewhat anti social way to learn self defense.  If you go this route long enough it does have the added benefit that eventually you will end up in jail.  There you will get the opportunity to fight a lot.

The second way is to get someone to teach you. 

There is a whole industry built up around teaching people "self defense".  I remember Bruce Lee movies and the TV show Kung Fu being popular.  I also remember all the hype about which style is "the best".

I have a couple of thoughts on what "THE BEST" self defense method is.  It's a lot like this question, "What's the best hand gun for self defense", or this one, "What's the best kind of insurance to have".  Here is the definitive answer to these questions.  The best type of insurance is one that pays the bill when you need it.  The best kind of gun for self defense is the one that is reliably going bang and putting bullets into the bad guy.  The best fighting style is the one you can use to hurt the other guy and keep him from hurting you.

I haven't spent half my life in a dojo grabbing other guys and tossing them on the floor.  I have no idea what which is better, ching chang fu of fu chang ching.  I doubt that most of the guys yacking about it do either.  The whole thing reminds me of the which gun is better debate.  The one I shoot your hostile butt dead with when I need to, is just fine.

There are a lot of guys out there promoting themselves as "defense experts".  I suspect that some of them are legit.  I suspect that some of them are posers who posture toughness as a way to make a buck.  I suspect that like most things the guys yacking about it haven't ever got popped in the mouth by bigger guy.  Posers telling other posers how tough they are won't keep you safe.  Common sense like staying away from bad places and bad people will go a long way.  Being aware of your surroundings and being on the look out for trouble so you can avoid it will be another help.

If you can't manage that, make friends with three big guys who spent time in the big house and pay them to hang out with you all the time.  The debate about the effectiveness of chung yu tu is meaningless.