Sorry, I'm throwing down the big words today - but it made you look. Stay a while. I'm going to dust off a corner of my brain and sometimes when I dust, I come across something that I had forgotten that I was looking for. ;)
In philosophy, verisimilitude refers to the 'truthlikeness', or the quality of realism in something, whereas for the purposes of my blog entry, I'll discuss the term 'hyperauthenticity' later in the paradoxical sense of 'being excessively authentic'....where 'authenticity' is simply being true to your inner self, as opposed to giving in to the pressures of superficial externalities in our society.
For example, Master Callos'
100 Examples of Good Martial Arts Videos is an outstanding project in which he's both sharing and encouraging us to share martial arts vids with a high degree of verisimility: a high level of quality approaching the ideal of "really outstanding martial arts".
One of the problems of verisimilitude arises in the works of
Karl Popper. In examining competing scientific theories, he asserted that even though the ultimate goal of scientific inquiry is the truth, it should be also acknowledged that, to some extent, the greatest scientific theories of the ages have all been false....including the current ones. Yet, if all of these things have been false, in order for progress to occur, at least one theory (hopefully the current ones) must be 'less false' (or more true?) than the others. This gives rise to another issue: it is difficult to clearly and meaningfully articulate how one false theory is closer to the truth than another, especially if we haven't yet arrived at the truth - how would we know with any degree of certainty if we got there if all we have are 'best possible' explanations?
(Careful, I'm committing heinous acts of martial blasphemy here! Read onward at your own risk.)
An issue that arises for the martial practitioner is this: every martial art is, in a sense, a false theory. It is a 'best possible' attempt to answer certain undesirable elements of our world (to avoid pain and pursue pleasure, as
Tony Robbins might put it).
Consequently, every martial arts instructor that you've ever had - or will ever have - is wrong.
Well, at least to some extent.
And yet, that also means that to some extent, the concepts espoused by every martial art and every instructor are true, or at the very least verisimilitudinous. So what is a student to do in this hazy land of partial truths and a quasi-readable blog entry with far too many huge words in it?
You need to decide: to what extent will you apply an
objectivist or a
constructivist approach to the training that you are receiving? And to what degree will you place your trust in your teacher, despite the very real possibility that *something* that they are teaching is not true?
In plain talk: you need to find a balance between selecting/narrowing down specific fragments of the truth and assembling those fragments into something greater through interpretation and integration.
Style/Method XYZ contains fragments of the truth. So does System/Association ABC. Many students (and sadly, teachers) of the arts spend far too much time debating the verisimility of XYZ versus ABC or dogmatically proselytizing LMNOP, version 1.23 as taught by Supreme Fiery Monk-Like Being Alpha....and not nearly enough time creating a more useful and functional method for themselves. Conversely, many students and teachers also begin to blend and construct methods without consideration to the verisimility of the theories that they are tossing into their martial crock-pot.
In the UBBT, you are seeking a more intelligent way to approach your training. The teachings that you are receiving, although inevitably flawed in some way, contain a great deal of useful practices worth integrating into your lifestyle. The practice of becoming an authentic human being through the kind of training that we are doing can and must include the means to protect yourself from harm as well as empower you with the means to select and constructively embrace that with is beneficial.
It should be noted that the pursuit of authenticity that I speak of is not an unhealthy attempt at hyperauthenticity in a single facet of your training or existence. To engage in a hyperauthentic practice is more like a parody of authenticity - you chase it to the point of losing touch with reality and/or your inner self, which would be self-defeating. It would be like becoming so obsessed with working out that you lose touch with family, friends, loved ones....and even if it wasn't working out, you'd start to sound pretty weird to them. ;)
The true pursuit of authenticity, of living the 'real-est' life possible, by its nature, cannot be overdone without becoming lost. It doesn't even have to be overwhelming, because ultimately, we don't even really have a 100% certain way of determining the authenticity of your lifestyle; however, we know from the idea of verisimilitude that it is still possible to identify a 'less authentic' lifestyle from a 'more authentic' lifestyle....same applies to your training.
A subtle beauty of the UBBT process is that it has a built-in safeguard against hyperauthentic uberachievers....because in the act of balancing multiple objectives (all of them admirable), when you're overdoing something, you're bound to begin underperforming elsewhere.
Therefore, be mindful. Reflect. Identify what is useful. Build it into your life. Seek balance.
To some degree, everything that I tell you may be a lie, but within it, find the truth you can share.
