I am currently working on the conclusion to Fear and Fight: Understanding Our Natural and Learned Responses to a Threat. The driving theme of that conclusion is that the book shares my insights into our natural and learned responses to a threat.
Having an insight is an act of creation. Each insight is the creation of a new idea that didn’t exist before, often in opposition to defective ideas that formerly prevailed. No one expected this new idea to emerge, and other people who possessed the same information were unaware of its existence (Klein 2013, Seeing What Others Don't)That describes the insights I share in Fear and Fight about our natural and learned responses to a threat.
Klein explains that there are five strategies for gaining insights: connections, coincidences, curiosities, contradictions, and creative desperation. My path to gaining insights into our natural and learned responses to a threat was through curiosity: Why didn't I experience a fight-or-flight/stress response which is evolutionarily designed to promote an individual's survival when my survival was threatened by a knife-wielding assailant on two separate occasions? Klein explains that curiosity does not contain the insight, but it does put a person on the path to gaining insights. My question regarding my lack of a fight-or-flight/stress response when my survival was threatened put me on the path to gaining insights into our natural and learned responses to a threat.
The Jan de Jong Martial Arts Fitness recently used what would have been Jan de Jong's 99th birthday to promote their school. This led me to thinking given that I'm working on insights for my conclusion, did JDJ possess insight(s) and if so into what?
Insight means an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something. It could be argued that based on this definition that JDJ did possess insight into martial arts techniques. However, when you consider Klein's explanation that insights shift us towards a new, better idea/story that didn't exist before; did JDJ shift us towards a new, better idea/story that didn't exist before? What is unique in his teachings?
Some may seen this post as being some sort of attack on JDJ. It is nothing of the sort. It is simply a meditation or reflection on JDJ's work and legacy. I have a unique appreciation of JDJ's grading system which he developed and which I have tried to share with the readers of this blog, however, does the development of the grading system qualify as insight?
This leads to the broader question, do you need to possess insight in order to be considered great? Did Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan karate, possess insight and if so into what? The founder of a new style or type of martial art might qualify as possessing insight. For instance, Yip Man and Wing Chun. It might be argues that the Gracies and their ground fighting strategies that drove the development of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu might be an example of insight.
It's just a musing as I struggle with the conclusion to Fear and Fight.
