What is your motivation for doing Kendo?

[MaartenSFS]

It seems to me that you've got some pretty odd ideas about modern law enforcement as well as both the knights and samurai of medieval times. I know quite a few law enforcement officers in a number of different cities in the U.S. Most of them are in the job because they feel that it is the right thing to do. I do know a couple aren't very nice people, but that is true of any group in society. There will always be bad apples in any barrell.

I too have met a lot of police (Including in America). I have some police in my family, as well. I can't vouch for them. How can they explain, for example, their complete lack of martial ability and conditioning? Perhaps because they don't need it to get the job done. In the past it was less of a job and more of a way of life.

As for your erroneous assumptions regarding knights and samurai, I think you've been watching way too many movies and not reading enough actual history. Neither the samurai nor European knights were "respected like gods". Rather they were pretty much feared as ruthless overlords with the power of life and death over the peasant ranks. They were respected as adversaries by rival knights and samurai, but they were hardly the chivalrous or honorable saints that the movies make them out to be. In both medieval Japan and Europe, assassinations, treachery, broken aggreements, and ambush tactics were extremely common, and considered to be business as usual. Various groups switched sides whenever it was to their benefit. Other than becoming a bit more complicated, society really hasn't changed much between then and now.

Respect out of fear is still respect. Of course no one was perfect and I tend to take the romantic side of things. Ancient people were pigs, spitting and ******** everywhere they pleased (Indeed this still goes on in many places in the world). Perhaps I just hate the change of costume ("Ghetto" loose trousers) and scenery (Polluted urban environments). And none of this changes the fact that the days of great warriors have passed...

(And I don't use the content of films as a source for my knowledge.)

 

[jks9199]

Fair enough, I guess that is what Kenjutsu is (WAS?). But don't expect me to be happy about it. The modern equivalent of the knight/Samurai would have to be either some high-ranking soldiers or the police, as they are the only one's allowed to carry and use swords (guns) - but in limited situations.

Taking the police, as an example:

They have none of the virtues of knights/Samurai, none of the martial ability. F*uck, they strive only to consume the most possible donuts/biscuits/danish' as possible in the shortest amount of time. If anything, they are blue targets (Especially in Holland and England). In China they are somewhat more badarse, but impossibly corrupt. Especially the high-ranking police are like pigs (Literally). And why should they be honourable? They have a low salary and a high-risk job. At least the knights/samurai were regarded as nobles. The police nowadays haven't got any good examples. Is M&M (Hip-hop "singer"/spelling?) a selfless, respectable, badarse individual whom we should try to imitate?

Part of the problem is also the modern values of society. The people don't trust the police and no one really wants to work for anything, but complain when things are out of order. In the olde days knights and samurai were respected like gods. Now they are treated like the scum that they have become.

A good example for the modern police: Clint Eastwood in The Man With No Name Trilogy

I too have met a lot of police (Including in America). I have some police in my family, as well. I can't vouch for them. How can they explain, for example, their complete lack of martial ability and conditioning? Perhaps because they don't need it to get the job done. In the past it was less of a job and more of a way of life.



Respect out of fear is still respect. Of course no one was perfect and I tend to take the romantic side of things. Ancient people were pigs, spitting and ******** everywhere they pleased (Indeed this still goes on in many places in the world). Perhaps I just hate the change of costume ("Ghetto" loose trousers) and scenery (Polluted urban environments). And none of this changes the fact that the days of great warriors have passed...

(And I don't use the content of films as a source for my knowledge.)

You know what...

You're seriously starting to scare me.

Beyond some very bad stereotypes of law enforcement officers (I can introduce you to plenty who don't fit your picture), you've got some positively weird ideas about what a samurai or knight was, and what cops are today. Guess what... Here in the US, in most states, ANYBODY can own and carry a gun, so long as they comply with the laws. In my state, the Commonwealth of Virginia... you can even carry a gun openly so long as you may legally possess it. You don't got to be a cop... You don't have to be a guard. You just have to NOT be a convicted felon or have been involuntarily committed to mental health treatment, basically. (There are a few other restrictions.)

You long for the days of pillaging bands... They're here. We just call them gangs today, and those of us in America's Largest Street Gang take great pleasure in curtailing their activities.

 

[MaartenSFS]

You know what...

You're seriously starting to scare me.

Beyond some very bad stereotypes of law enforcement officers (I can introduce you to plenty who don't fit your picture), you've got some positively weird ideas about what a samurai or knight was, and what cops are today. Guess what... Here in the US, in most states, ANYBODY can own and carry a gun, so long as they comply with the laws. In my state, the Commonwealth of Virginia... you can even carry a gun openly so long as you may legally possess it. You don't got to be a cop... You don't have to be a guard. You just have to NOT be a convicted felon or have been involuntarily committed to mental health treatment, basically. (There are a few other restrictions.)

You long for the days of pillaging bands... They're here. We just call them gangs today, and those of us in America's Largest Street Gang take great pleasure in curtailing their activities.

Whoah! Virginia is a Commonwealth? As in like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, et cetera? If so, which country does it belong to? England or America? If the latter, I didn't know that America had commonwealths. Interesting.

About the hand guns. The question is not whether you can own one or even carry one. It is certainly not like the wild west where people settled their disputes with their "lawmakers". In most countries you need a ****-load of paperwork to own and carry one and if you actually fire it you're probably going to get legally ****ed (Unless you shot yourself) in court, afterwards. Anyways, I'm talking more about places like California and the rest of the world, where guns are banned from civilian use. And Eminem (Spelling?) with his civilisation-dooming "lyrics" and Bobby Joe with a sawed-off shotgun in the back of his overly large pick-up are hardly as masculine as the Mongolian hordes rolling down that far away hill in your direction.

Don't take me so serious. I tend to put an humourous overexaggerated spin on things. About the police, I was just talking about the vast majority of them. Enjoy life, for one day - when you least expect it - it may be wrenched from your protesting corpse.

 

[Senjojutsu]

Whoah! Virginia is a Commonwealth? As in like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, et cetera? If so, which country does it belong to? England or America? If the latter, I didn't know that America had commonwealths. Interesting.

Anyways, I'm talking more about places like California and the rest of the world, where guns are banned from civilian use.

Clarification,
Of the fifty states comprising the USA officially the following four are called "commonwealths" not states - but it does not have any legal distinction - it's a historical legacy:

Kentucky
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
Virginia

However in common language usage all these four are normally referred to as being "states".

As another historical example one of our most dinky (in land area) states has the longest formal name, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - and not to mention that Little Rhodie is not an island either.


California bans civilian ownership of guns, who knew?
BTW it is also a "state" of these United States.

 

[MaartenSFS]

Clarification,
Of the fifty states comprising the USA officially the following four are called "commonwealths" not states - but it does not have any legal distinction - it's a historical legacy:

Kentucky
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
Virginia

However in common language usage all these four are normally referred to as being "states".

As another historical example one of our most dinky (in land area) states has the longest formal name, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - and not to mention that Little Rhodie is not an island either.


California bans civilian ownership of guns, who knew?
BTW it is also a "state" of these United States.

Thank you for the clarification. It was truly educational. I remember reading an article on ridiculous laws in America and England. One of them was that in Massachusetts a woman's hair is the legal property of her husband (If not married I think father). WTF