Jiu Jitsu is the art of the unexpected
Class ‘warfare’ - the 99% and the martial arts
What does the revolution look like?
We need a revolution. Of spirit and minds, not guns and violence. We need to learn to do Jiu Jitsu moves on the enemies at our gates. We need to study the strategies of war, which can defeat our rulers with a mere flick of the wrist.
Jiu Jitsu background
Jiu Jitsu is a parent art. This means that other arts have grown out of it, including Aikido and Judo, which were both founded by Jiu Jitsu masters. Jiu Jitsu means The Art of Suppleness, or flexibility.
Suppleness is key to understanding Jiu Jitsu. And it’s key to defeating the 1%.
An example of suppleness can be found in comparing so-called ‘hard’ martial arts with ‘soft’ martial arts. Karate, for example, is known for its devastating strikes. It’s force meets force. It’s direct. It’s breaking boards with a hand. Kung-Fu is on the opposite end of the spectrum, emulating the movements of nature, using gentle grace and circular patterns to neutralize an attacker.
Jiu Jitsu is flexible, meaning it rides in the center of the continuum we’re describing here. It can become hard, but it can become very soft. It’s a dimmer switch on a light bulb. It can be on or off, and anywhere in between. Consequently, it’s deceptive because of its unpredictability. It can caress our adversary with the softness of a feather, or it can kill with the swiftness of a guillotine.
The 99% needs to understand that our responses in this war of survival must occur along an unpredictable continuum if we are to succeed. And make no mistake, we are in a war of survival. Which means that there is no art more important to incorporate into this deadly struggle than the lessons we can extract from a defensive martial art.
Due to its complexity and comprehensiveness, it can take longer to earn a Jiu Jitsu black belt. In some arts a black belt can be earned within two years. In Jiu Jitsu it is not uncommon to take four to six years to earn a first degree black belt. It’s a course of study as much as a practice of art. You need to start studying. If not literally in a dojo, then the dojo of our minds.
The 1% are emissaries of unapologetic, unbridled, uninhibited greed and self-centeredness. You, your loved ones, your descendants, and your entire way of life are under threat. This is the uncomfortable, squeamish truth that we need to face. It’s the threat of deeper servitude, or even annihilation.
You need to start studying.
Moving into the attack
A beginner in any martial art is going to have some head-shaking experiences. One of the first things that made me shake my head in Jiu Jitsu was the concept of stepping into an attack. In some respects, this could be compared to running toward an erupting volcano, or into an approaching tsunami. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?
Don’t meet your opponents force head on; attempt to use his momentum to your advantage.-an Essential Point of Self Defense (Great River Jiu Jitsu)
It is a mental challenge, in the beginning, when you think of moving into an attack, while at the same time you’re being told Jiu Jitsu is a self-defense art. Moving into an attack and defending yourself seem to be at odds with each other.
But see? Even in the beginning, as beginners, we are being exposed to the deceptive nature of Jiu Jitsu. For us, as students, it takes a great deal of training to overcome our natural tendency to move away from an attack. Imagine then, how an attacker would feel by their victim moving in.
Unprepared.
Jiu Jitsu is the art of the unexpected.
Once we begin to train and practice, we realize some advantages of moving into the attack. For example, if we step into a roundhouse strike, we are stepping into its momentum. We are getting inside the circular power of that strike. Because it is never allowed to complete its mission.
By stepping in, we also get inside what is called the attackers “cone of strength.” There are several ways of looking at this.
The most obvious is what is called the clinch in boxing. There, the two fighters wrap each other up, attempting to prevent any meaningful punches or strikes. The clinch has the effect of neutralizing the attacker. In Jiu Jitsu, even if we don’t actually clinch them, even if all we do is simply move in, we have instantly neutralized many of their so-called weapons. We are “inside their strength.”
All warfare is based on deception. — The Art of War, 1:18
Being on the inside, in this manner, has additional advantages. The attacker is generally not going to be used to being in this position. Just the fact that we are there will throw the attacker off balance. By moving in we interrupt their attack, their use of force, their flow, their continuity.
In self defense, efficient use of strength is key
In Jiu Jitsu, we describe the ‘cone of strength’ as being the area where we are physically strongest.
We can visualize the cone of strength as a shape, by imagining the shape of a house, extending outward starting about an inch or two from our body to slightly less than arms full reach. The bottom of the house is nearest our body, and the tip of the roof is where our hands come together if our arms are extended but slightly bent at the elbows. If we try to reach beyond this area, we become weaker. If we try to do something too close to our body, we also are weaker.
The concept of the cone of strength is to only do things that maximize our power or impact. “Work within your cone,” was an oft-repeated refrain from my instructors.
Be efficient in your work. Work within your areas of strength. Don’t work from areas of weakness.
Controlling the center
When we move in we are also stepping into the calm eye of the hurricane, the still center of the tornado.
When we move in close to someone, their shoulders are far less dangerous than their swinging arms or tightened fists. That makes sense, right? We want to understand this concept because our revolutionary war of consciousness needs us to embrace class warfare attacks similarly.
One of our tools is the concept of embracing the attacker. Embracing neutralizes the attack. Once neutralized, we are now in a position to steer.
Jiu Jitsu is a thinking man’s art, until you learn not to think.
Describing this in a few words requires a bit of a conceptual leap. The basic premise is this: the attacker is anything but calm. But the defender has trained to be calm in the face of the adversity. And when we’re in the center, the smallest of movements can have the greatest of effects. He/she who controls the center, wins.
Think of sitting on the center of the merry-go round compared to being on the outside. Both positions are moving, but one is calmer while the other is sometimes barely hanging on by a thread.
A war of the unexpected
The essential concept being presented here is that a good defense often occurs from a highly disruptive and unexpected place. Once we step into the center of the attack, we have the opportunity to control or ‘steer’ the center until the attacker submits. Taps out.
Jiu Jitsu is a martial art that tends not to meet force with force. After all, the attacker may be more forceful than we are.
To be clear, stepping into the attack is not the one and only rule. It is one of many. The more fundamental concept has to do with surprise and with controlling the center.
He/she who controls the center, wins. This needs to be studied. In part, because it’s less about ‘controlling’ the center than ‘being’ the center. In part, because yes, the center is calm, but also because the center is explosive.
Rather than encounter the adversity head-on, we typically move our bodies off the line of attack. As we’ve seen, this can be done by moving in. But moving off the line of attack includes moving ourself to the side -even if only a half a step. Or moving forwards or backwards on a 45 degree angle relative to the attacker.
Using the principle of Movement allows us to dissipate much of the attacker’s energy by employing Movement. In other words, at least initially, we avoid the full force of an assault simply by moving.
10 ways the 99% have superiority
The attacks made on us by the rich and powerful are highly orchestrated, powerful, diverse and are occurring on many fronts. We need responses that work in pretty much any situation versus responses that are individually customized for specific or one-off attacks.
Never fight an opponent on his terms. — an Essential Pointof Self Defense (Great River Jiu Jitsu)
Remember, we do not want to engage our attackers in their field of strength. Because that’s where they are stronger.
Let’s look at some ways we are superior.
- Their power and wealth is vast, but our numbers are vast and overwhelming.
- Their minds are closed by greed, but ours are open to fairness and balance. Nature always seeks Balance.
- Their tactics are divide and conquer, but once we unify there is no stopping us. We are stronger at conquering them, than they are at dividing us.
- A genuinely unified mind has no room for selfishness and greed. Therefore, they cannot unify their minds.
- Their minds aren’t still, nor are they calm. Ours are, as long as we stay loyal to training them to be calm.
- They fear falling because they live so high. We are already on the ground, and greet them as they fall. Don’t forget, 90% of all physical fights end up on the ground. Whenever they stumble, hesitate or fall, they land where we live. We own the terrain.
- Their power is found in conceit and arrogance, in dollars and the power of selfishness and negativity. Our army is that of minds. It’s the dark side versus the Force.
- Their fortress is money and power. Ours is the unstoppable rise of humanity. They’re surrounded every minute of every day, with only a breachable moat of isolation to protect them.
- They can’t focus like we can, because they have too much on their minds.
- They can’t focus on the simple, because they are convinced they are too smart.
The Jiu Jitsu of consciousness
Everything we’ve created exists because of our minds.
As we study Jiu Jitsu, we begin to realize that the fight or encounter is often won or lost depending on the state of our intention. The focus of our mind, combined with our ability to be supple and relaxed, is what determines the outcomes.
It is easy for us to see what the intentions of our adversaries are. Many of them no longer attempt to deny it. This gives us some strategic advantages because it exposes their end game. We may get confused by their tactics, but we know where they’re heading: our destruction.
As upsetting or even terrifying as all this can be, and for all their greed and clutching for even more power, we have advantages. One of them is that they can be neutralized by the still, calm mind of humanity. What’s been created by the greater human Mind can be withdrawn.
Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. — The Art of War, 1:19
We need to abandon despair, and adopt a mind set of realizations. Realizing that they can be utterly defeated is something that’s been repeatedly shown throughout history. Consciousness is a war they cannot win.
Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.- The Art of War, 3:6
