What is the lesson? Just as one doesn’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s rye, one doesn’t have to be Brazilian to learn Brazilian jujitsu. And one doesn’t have to be poor, angry, or demented to learn how to prevail militarily in today’s world.
One, just as in the academy, need only be patient, committed to learning, and frank about one’s goals.
All fights are viewed, after the fact, as the trial of a philosophical proposition. “Democracy must triumph over dictatorship,” “Speed must defeat bulk,” “Mobility will always overcome power,” et cetera.
We will note that the nature of the polemic is available only after the fact, and is, thus, a tautology reducible to “the winning side must always emerge victorious.”
These philosophical precepts, however, may also be employed prophylactically, that is, before the fact, but must, then, be coupled with prescription. Understanding may defeat strength, given patience; age may defeat youth, given knowledge.
The martial arts, at their best, teach this stoical philosophy, preceding, not through an appeal to intellect, but by a habituation of the body such that, in combat, the philosophic truths are incontestably revealed.
And there is something satisfying in watching two guys in the ring attempt to get each other to cry “uncle,” which, and here I will close, is a difference between mixed martial arts and boxing.
The preferred aim of the boxer is to knock the other fellow out; the preferred aim of the jujitsuan is to have the other fellow tap, which is to say, surrender.
