Man created civilization to free himself from the disastrous
influence of natural elements . For tens of thousands of years mankind strived
toward better , safer life , working hard along way reaching the point we have
today . But modern civilization imprisoned the man , mankind became a slave of
its long effort to improve the society .
Modern economic foundation of society simply dictates the
pace of life in which the human being is transformed into a small piece of huge
consumer’s machinery that unscrupulously consumes the available human and
natural resources in order to conserve the existing order. Modern man thus
becomes a slave because he has no choice but to submit himself to it in order
to provide, as much as possible , normal
material existence and normal living standard for himself and his loved ones. In other words, each individual
becomes voluntary slave of the slavish
mentality\way of life which is dictated by
global geopolitical and economic interests.
Indolence,
selfishness and greed are just some of
the many symptoms of modern society degradation , which trivializes humanity, and slowly inverts
traditional values and social institutions. In modern society there is no place
for empathy , morality ,ethics , in other words , there is no place for
traditional values and institutions . Modern living environment is as harsh as
it was 10 000 years ago .
However, the question
remains what is a real man inside this civilized prison in which he closed himself ? Many people are still that , people
, decent human beings who need to be more than what they are offered to be .
Many feel emotional void which was in past times filled with traditional religion
, morality , ethics ,family , belonging to a larger social group. Traditional
way of life , as harsh as it was , fit
to fulfill all emotional, spiritual and social needs of a common man , giving
him identity and purpose . Modern way of life ripped that apart and left modern
man without all these things mentioned above.
Trying to fill the void, but separated from tradition , with
ruined traditional instruments and institutions , many turn to whatever they get and , unfortunately
become a victim of their own desire to be better people , to fulfill their
basic social, spiritual and emotional needs. Many become victims of various cults , spiritual leaders ,
life coaches ect , not being aware that these organizations and people are just
a part of consumer’s society and way of life and they are basically pay , like
they pay for everything else in their life ,for something they should have already,
automatically just by the fact they were born and a members of a society , something
they should have inherited from their ancestors.
Many turn to Chinese kung fu . From purely fighting art only
100 years ago , kung fu today became “all I one “ package for fulfilling basic
needs of a modern man . Kung fu offers a sense of belonging , members of some
kung fu school \ style often call them self brothers , sisters , uncles
ect. That sense of belonging is often supported
with distinctive clothing, heraldic , vocabulary . To a practitioner is also
offered a sense of pride introduced through “history” and some famous ancestor
with often supernatural abilities. A number
of rituals are also included to reinforce sense of pride and belonging . Some
in these rituals find a spiritual note .
There are also elements in various
degrees of personality cult , followed with altars and unquestionable worship .This
way practitioner identify himself and also get a sense of purpose ( inherit ,
preserve and spread something important (kung fu style)) As we can see , practitioner can find everything
he needs to fulfill his basic needs , he replaces his own history with a
history of the style he practices , replaces his own ancestors with kung fu ancestors
, build his identity and purpose upon kung fu practice and belonging to a
particular style\history \ancestor . Practitioner also fulfills his spiritual
needs through various rituals and also religious needs through ancestors
worshiping. Of course this is quite
expensive and these quasi religion , quasi family , quasi spirituality costs
significant amount of money . Now, it is obvious that many of things described
here are almost identical with attributes of religious cults, which is not a coincidence
. Behavior of people involved in kung fu
often is identical with people involved in religious cults. There is a total
lack of critical thinking , everything that comes from the teacher is
unquestionable truth and it is not subject of analysis. The only truth (
original style, teachings , ancestors ) is within a particular style , all
others are wrong . Facing the true facts about their style\history\ancestor ,
practitioners are not able to accept them and they become aggressive toward the
person\source of these information .
It is important to say that majority of teachers do not
insist on these things , they are just teaching for money and practitioners themselves
are actually ones who push things in this direction and it is their own fault
for such situation . Of course , majority of teachers do not stop this behavior
as well , for purely financial purposes .
At the end , it would be good to ask yourself a question ,
are you a kung fu practitioner or a cult member .
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