Identity and Violence

I recently picked up Identity and Violence, written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Amartya Sen, a professor at Harvard. Fascinating read. Many of his ideas are accessible, despite their complexity.

Early in the text, he discusses how an excessive sense of identity can backfire and create a system of justifications for unhealthy categorical attitudes, oppressive thoughts and behaviors, and eventually inhumane actions. Many of us easily fall prey to the fallacy that people can easily be classified into a narrow series of groups, which we can then make broad statements about.

It seems possible that similar behaviors exist in the martial arts world. Style, association, school, team, etc...we are certainly entitled to have a sense of pride in our roots; however, it's when that pride turns us against each other that we betray our own values.

"Those guys", in "that school", who practice "that style" with "that teacher"...what a sad way to completely rule out several dozen potential allies, friends, and brothers/sisters in the arts.

I tried to talk with some friends about the recent BJ Penn fight (which I didn't get to see) and I was stunned to hear things like, "I don't care for that stuff at all" and "I'd really rather not discuss it." How unfortunate, because while it's certainly a different subculture within the martial arts world, there's a lot to be gained within our own practice from studying those bouts! Sure, there are certain aspects of the subculture which conflict with my personal preferences and tastes (especially given their target demographic), but that doesn't change the basic premise of the competition and it's not going to keep me from trying to learn from the MMA field.

That conversation helped me see more clearly about how we draw our own ideological borders. When we choose an identity or distinguish ourselves from another, whether it's a martial art, social group, religion, business, club, family, culture, nationality, or what have you...that choice potentially carries the possibility of dividing us from others.

Something to be mindful of.