LETHALITY

In nearly all martial arts and various practices related to martial arts, there is always the risk of danger, injury, as well as the possibility of death, it might seem, just as there is in nearlyevery human activity. Martial arts are assumed to be somewhat lethal and are to be used with caution and discretion, as most experts and masters tend to assert and insist. HOWEVER, I notice among all the various demos and matches and antics in and out of the ring,etc. a complete lack of LETHALITY. Few persons enter such with the exact notion of killing or crippling their opponents, all in the name of sport and competition, and we are all advised to save such for what are considered 'rare',life threatening, and dangerous situations, but clearly a 'kill or be killed' attitude and effort are lacking no matter how many injuries are sustained or how 'brutal,. such instances appear. A great fear of legal implications,even in wartime, hangs over the real warrior who usually these days uses guns and other weapons. This concept of LETHALITY is difficult to explain, let alone demonstrate, in any seminar or workshop or training program and is completely ignored for the most part for all kinds of reason. The Japanese during WWII had little hesitation in showing how sharp theair swords were on the necks of Chinese, Americans, British,Dutch, Filipinos, Indonesians,and other captives. There would be little doubt in the minds of those witnessing such that lethality exists and such weapons can and are lethal. NO THEORY THAT! The same also applied to ju-jutsu, arnis, karate,etc. because they can be very lethal when this concept is fully understood(and it never is for a number of reasons) and is not necessarily the same as 'cruelty',barbarism' 'torture' or the like when you have to call upon this LETHALITY to survive. There is always more to be said on such but I think we can safely say that most practitoners and students of martial arts as undergoing training today have not intentionally killed anyone using these martial arts. There are exceptions,no doubt.