Mental Waza.

Some great comments left by some very thoughtful people on the previous two posts that could make for some interesting conversation and mindful meditation.

The world seems driven by popular culture, at least the majority, but this is counter-balanced by those who question such popular views and come to their own conclusions, unstifled by the fact that they are essentially 'heretics' in this modern age.
That is fine with me, a little heresy tends to get some gears turning, whether it is sooner or later seems not to be an issue of great importance.

It is not a particularly comfortable position to be in, but it is necessary for maintaining such a balance, otherwise everything would be off-kilter and one-sided.
That would be a rather uninteresting world to live in, bland, dull, boring, even bordering on the dark and dystopic, or perhaps a utopia if no one really needed any prodding to move along in a single direction.
Either way, no one is being burned at the stake at present, and a little healthy debate is akin to mental conditioning, nothing wrong with that.

The growing trend, I think, cannot be pin-pointed to one thing imparticular, but a lack of several things in several areas which have become like a cancer upon which Popular Culture acts as an irritant.
It is designed to take advantage of this gaping hole and prod it in whatever direction it sees fit, some people see it, some people don't.
The danger is in how it is handled, or not; one way would feed the beast, the other would be to do nothing, in either case it is not a simple problem to resolve.

Pointing out deficiencies or flaws as compared to reality, to dispell the illusion by making one aware of it, this should be an exercise which is common place in whatever setting, be it Dojo or Gym, pretty much the same thing, just different names and different presentation.
Again, nothing more than a brand name, as, in either case, you are dealing with popular culture for the sake of commercial enterprise - nothing wrong with this, considering the world we live in and what needs to be done in order to make ends meat.

Could it be commercial suicide to point out the mechinations of the monster? I'm not altogether convinced that it is necessary to feed the illusion.
If there is something worth while in what someone is doing then it will speak for itself, initial advertising, perhaps, but there again, I am not convinced.
I see people go for different things based on some personal notion of what it is they are looking for, whether it be reality based, traditional, or athletic, it doesn't matter, there is obviously something individual in the mix, or some illusion of individuality, some design based on personality-type.
[Industrial Psychologists are notorious for marketing schemes based on this, who is to say something wasn't engineered on a personal level based on engineered personality sets].

That is going off on a tangeant in another direction and is beyond the scope of this post, or this blog.

The theory of complexity seems to run counter to what we are seeing. That everything moves towards greater complexity does not seem to enter the equation of popular culture which seemingly aims to widdle everything down to the lowest common denominator, attempting to make things more simple, streamlined, easier to manage, easier to control, easier to suggest.
Instead of values you have raw emotions, instead of literacy and wisdom you have the brand name and the face of the brand, nowhere does it factor in morals, ethics, reason, or anything of the like.
It doesn't care for these things. That is the nature of that beast and it is meant to empower the illusion, to feed that inner story a person tends to tell themselves, speaking to their frustrations in positive reassurance, so that they may live vicariously through those whom provide their entertainment, ultimately leading to further consumption, further down into the habitual vehicle they help to construct day in and day out.

An idea is a powerful thing and if the mind becomes pliable enough it will accept any idea it is fed, and like a virus, the idea will grow and consume if it is fed and nurtured on a regular basis.
From Corporate Indoctrination, to National Identity, to Popular Culture, to Entertainment, and through Education.
Eliminate all those who would approve of a more free-thinking, questioning, and truly individual approach and you have a world that seems to defy the very movement of nature, though how long such a thing could last remains to be seen, if it is ever achieved to begin with.
Likely the whole thing will rip itself to pieces before such a time as Nature is Organic, not Mechanistic.

What does this have to do with Martial Arts? Everything and nothing, depending on how you read it.