Martial Arts: A Revolution or Evolution

A Revolution
Struggle inside or out
Evolve Unceasing

Welcome Martial Enthusiasts to Martial Arts Musings! This week I take a look at the differences between the evolution or the revolution in Martial Arts.

To give everyone a little bit background, if you listened to the Master Linh interview, you would have heard him suggest that in Vovinam as a revolution rather than an evolution. During the interview, he mentioned that Vovinam emphasized the notion of an individual's revolution. The journey through Vovinam is a revolution of the mind and body. A couple to transformation of the person.

Before I get too far, lets define revolution and evolution. Evolution is the gradual development of something, from a simple to complex form. Revolution is the sudden extreme or complete change of something,

Martial Arts and Revolution:
On one hand martial arts can be viewed as a revolution especially when applied to an individual. If a person and their environment aren't prevalent with martial arts then one may go through a drastic change or transformation. For example, say you grow up here in the United States, how prevalent is martial arts in this country? The only loose number I could find on the internet was roughly 18-20 million out of 320 million. So about 5%, so we will take this number with a grain of salt. Since, martial arts is not widely practiced or incorporated in our culture like say football, when someone does starts a martial arts journey they will probably make an incredible transition.

Woodrow Wilson said "The seed of revolution is repression".
Fidel Castro said "Revolution is not a bed of roses".
Napoleon said "Revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets".

Notice a pattern with these sayings? A revolution is a struggle, a fight. Some historical examples are the Boxer Rebellion and Cultural Revolution in China, Japan's occupation of South Korea, the French Occupation of Vietnam, Thailand. Most martial arts or self defense was born out of a struggle against imperialism or occupation.

For our purposes, a martial arts revolution is a struggle with ourselves, a struggle against being lazy, fat, undisciplined, egotistical etc etc.

Martial Arts and Evolution:
On the other hand martial arts can be viewed as an evolution. There are two ways to look at this, one broadly at the environment and second at the individual. One could say, martial arts evolved through generations of development. Look at the Chinese martial arts that have been passed down since 400-500 AD. Chinese Martial Arts have gradually changed over the centuries and I am sure that some young kids were "bred" for martial arts to pass on the lineages.

Thomas Edison said "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages". AR Rahman said, "Each of us has our own evolution of life, and each of one of us goes through differed tests which are challenging.

Notice a pattern again? An evolution is a challenge, a test. A martial arts evolution is the gradual betterment or honing of our skills.

Conclusion:
So where does this leave us. In my opinion, Martial Arts is both a revolution then an evolution. Your environment will likely impact whether martial arts to you is a revolution which then turns into an evolution or just a continuing evolution. What do you think?

Check out the corresponding podcast, #44.

-Dwight