Technique

[disgruntled]

hey, sorry i was MIA for awhile, my internet is on the fritz, so i might disapear a bit here and there.... working on a solution.....

so i got a question, while working on my MA, we have to take a course that anaylzes adult education and there is this passage in it:

"a facination with technique itself. The publishing market is regularly flooded with 'how to' manuals of all kinds. We turn to books to learn how to make love, and in consequence sex comes to be thought of as mainly a technique. Treatises on mental health appear that carry with them their own buillt-in little self-help kit of psychotherapy. All of this would be comic if it weren't so pathetic--and ultimately dangerous. This worship of technique is in fact more childish than the worship of machines. You have only to find the right method, the definitive procedure, and all problems in life must inevitably yild before it."
---- The Illusion of Technique, Barrett 1979 quoted in The Modern Practice of Adult Education: A Post Modern Critique, Briton 1996



this passage got me thinking, because i agree with that is said, but i am always harping on about how important technique is in MA, so what does that mean? what do you guys think? i am going to mull it over a bit longer before i post anything.

[sirdarksol]

Technique without will, logical process, training, etc... is worthless.

On the other hand, the others without technique are severely hampered. Training is useless, as what do you train in? Technique. Logical process and will can pull you through a bit, but without technique, their use is limited to your capabilities.

I think that, perhaps, Barrett was just as short-sighted as the self-help books he was bashing. Technique is necessary, though I would agree with him that many have an obsession with it being the only thing necessary.

[DOCBROWN1705]

I think I see the point, we as a society spent far to much time figuring out the "how to" but not enough time figuring out why.
However no matter which way you slice it, nothing in life is one sided. To get rid of any one part of training, means that you are losing something. The trick is to realize that you need all of the parts to complete the whole. Don't get trapped into a single sided way of thinking, and forget the big picture.

[disgruntled]

Originally Posted by DOCBROWN1705

I think I see the point, we as a society spent far to much time figuring out the "how to" but not enough time figuring out why.
However no matter which way you slice it, nothing in life is one sided. To get rid of any one part of training, means that you are losing something. The trick is to realize that you need all of the parts to complete the whole. Don't get trapped into a single sided way of thinking, and forget the big picture.

that is a really good point! i think that i am guilty of that sometimes. sometimes people oppose a theory or practice too strongly and concentrates on why their own theory is different or better instead of concentrating on looking at the truth, which is usually somewhere in between.

[Koutaishi]

There is a good point to this. Learning to throw a dozen different punches is small when compared to simply learning to control the momentum of your body.

[disgruntled]

yeah, but i think there is also a philosophical element. learning MA is not just about learning techniques, it is also about the journy. it is a process of self discovery as well.

[Hatori]

I like Bruce Lee's quote "Remember success is a journey, not a destination. Have faith in your ability"