Karate is a mess.
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Even today in the 21st century people still refute what karate is, and sometimes what it isn’t. The majority of modern karate is plagued by dogma. No one seems to know what they are training for and in which context.
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Practitioners cling to other people’s ideas with almost religious-like zeal, defending even the most ridiculous theories, training methods and philosophies because not doing so is admitting defeat. On their part at least.
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Bruce Lee referred to the separateness of all the martial arts styles as a “Fancy Mess” or “Organized Despair.” This included the blind devotion of martial arts students who lacked a real sense of individual and personal investigation and growth.
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“A Fancy Mess” refers to the rigidity of certain styles of martial arts which require memorization and regurgitation without any deviation from the style. These different styles were often in competition with each other over which was the best. And this was in the late 60’s early 70’s…. Nothing’s changed.
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You have to go to the heart of things when something is no longer working for you, such as in a relationship or a job, and you have to question it, figure it out, and talk to the people involved. The martial arts are no different.
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This question of if we are training in a way that actually will help keep us safe, particularly when it concerns de-escalation of aggression, is something that I think many dojos and practitioners don’t focus on enough.
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Martial arts systems often have a very irrational idea of aggression and how to manage it in a 21st century modern society. Some are taught to do things without any caution about potentially going to prison for their responses. Fight first, ask questions later.
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I get it, that if your life is on the line, you have to worry about saving your life before anything else. But beyond that, part of your training should include:
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A) training to actually defend yourself while conforming to the laws, and  focusing on how to stay out of trouble. If you neglect either of these things in the martial arts, you can have people get into real unfortunate situations.
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You have to contextualize your training, add verbal interaction. If your suddenly confronted with something you haven’t experienced before in high-intensity circumstances, you will freeze. You will be at a loss, or you will fall back on what you know best. If you’ve been training a perfect punch and you find yourself flooded with hormones, you won’t know what to say. Anything you do say seems to make the situation worse, and you may just resort to violence to make the aggressor stop, because if you feel helpless, feel verbally assaulted, and because you’ve been practicing that one thing so obsessively, you don’t have any other tools other than destruction. That’s all you’ve been training for…… To fight. (Do you see the difference yet?)
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The idea of a martial artist being able to defuse or deal with a situation before it actually gets to some kind of a physical engagement, seems like it should be an extremely high priority. Don’t you think? …….. Contextualize your training, get out of the mess. 
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