Skinnywhiteguy
12/18/2006 4:02pm,
I know I'm a newb here but I have to share my piece on why people who want to be 'ninjas' have not thought the thing through.
First some background (cuz everyone loves background) The only martial art I've studied is Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu (since '98) and I hate to admit it, but initially I was interested because of the whole samurai/ninja thing. It didn't take long for my instructor to make it VERY clear that the ninja thing is pretty much a joke, and that what we're learning is japanese unarmed combatives (per Hatsumi soke and our Shihan). Anyway, I stuck with it because it was fun, my instructor is a great guy and has become a good friend, and I am learning to handle myself better in a fight.
My issue with the guys that want to be Ninjas (aka stealth assassin, flip-out and kill people, poison with plutonium in sushi bars, hide weapons in the anus, stab femoral artery with icicle, disappear into the shadows) is not that they're looking for something that doesn't exist. It's that they don't realize what the anti government feudal japanese special ops really was, and they don't realize who the modern equivalent really is. The modern equivalent of the Ninja is the suicide bomber that blows up GIs passing out candy to children. The modern equivalent of the Ninja is the Al Qaeda jihadi kidnapping NGO doctors and torturing them to death. They do everything like the Ninjas.
They have become mountain recluses (and if they survive much longer will probably fraction into in-fighting groups and become clandestine mountain recluses). They wage mental warfare on their opponents by attacking mixed military and non-miltary targets. They recruit the young and impressionable and send them into suicide missions. They are hit-and-run specialists, everywhere and nowhere. They are fighting a larger, stronger, better equipped force and are 'successful' because of their methods. They have a sense of national identity and 'honor' that is incomprehensible to the rest of the world. They are religiously saavy and use that to confuse, recruit, and invoke fear into their own nation. The list goes on...
The LARPers and crappy martial artists that want to be Ninjas need to consider their game. Would you aspire to being an Al Qaeda footman? If you would you should have your head examined.. It's the same with the video games where you play a Private in the army landing on Juno beach or at the Somme or Verdun. It's friggin sick and shouldn't be tolerated. Wanna be Ninjas go home. I don't believe you really want to be that..
First some background (cuz everyone loves background) The only martial art I've studied is Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu (since '98) and I hate to admit it, but initially I was interested because of the whole samurai/ninja thing. It didn't take long for my instructor to make it VERY clear that the ninja thing is pretty much a joke, and that what we're learning is japanese unarmed combatives (per Hatsumi soke and our Shihan). Anyway, I stuck with it because it was fun, my instructor is a great guy and has become a good friend, and I am learning to handle myself better in a fight.
My issue with the guys that want to be Ninjas (aka stealth assassin, flip-out and kill people, poison with plutonium in sushi bars, hide weapons in the anus, stab femoral artery with icicle, disappear into the shadows) is not that they're looking for something that doesn't exist. It's that they don't realize what the anti government feudal japanese special ops really was, and they don't realize who the modern equivalent really is. The modern equivalent of the Ninja is the suicide bomber that blows up GIs passing out candy to children. The modern equivalent of the Ninja is the Al Qaeda jihadi kidnapping NGO doctors and torturing them to death. They do everything like the Ninjas.
They have become mountain recluses (and if they survive much longer will probably fraction into in-fighting groups and become clandestine mountain recluses). They wage mental warfare on their opponents by attacking mixed military and non-miltary targets. They recruit the young and impressionable and send them into suicide missions. They are hit-and-run specialists, everywhere and nowhere. They are fighting a larger, stronger, better equipped force and are 'successful' because of their methods. They have a sense of national identity and 'honor' that is incomprehensible to the rest of the world. They are religiously saavy and use that to confuse, recruit, and invoke fear into their own nation. The list goes on...
The LARPers and crappy martial artists that want to be Ninjas need to consider their game. Would you aspire to being an Al Qaeda footman? If you would you should have your head examined.. It's the same with the video games where you play a Private in the army landing on Juno beach or at the Somme or Verdun. It's friggin sick and shouldn't be tolerated. Wanna be Ninjas go home. I don't believe you really want to be that..