 So the internet is ablaze right now after a viral video showed a Tai Chi master in China get his ass handed to him By a mixed martial artist in a big fight For somebody who's been involved in martial arts for over a decade, I think it was wonderful man's name is Zhaodong Zhu and He apparently has to go into hiding in China because people are claiming that he was so Disrespectful by kicking the shit out of this Tai Chi master got a few things to say on this topic I always love to draw the analogies from the world of the martial arts into the world of ideas first thing that we can learn from this video the Tai Chi master was absolutely convinced of his own Technical prowess he thought he could actually defend himself at a fight He had a positive belief in something that was completely wrong as did all of his followers The man had authority. He had prestige. He had lots of people rooting for him who thought ooh, maybe he could really Put up a good fight against this mixed martial artist and all of them the man included were completely deluded Which brings up point number two The man's skill is obvious to somebody who's a who's a martial arts practitioner He didn't know how to defend himself. What's over he got knocked to the knock to the ground and just It was brutal had no idea what to do on the ground Didn't seem like he had any idea what to do standing up Which means his technical skill was actually very poor and I am claiming that somebody who has been practicing Let's say Gracie jiu-jitsu for six months six months if they're competent learners would be able to beat this You know Tai Chi practitioner even if he's been in a master for 30 years They would be able to kick his butt in like five minutes. Okay, or or even less could be even less than that so The person who's the expert who's been training who has the respect who's been who is supposed to deserve respect as a Martial artist could be completely destroyed by somebody who's a complete Navas who's been training for six months if they train in the right style This type of dynamic happens all the time in the world of ideas Most obviously in rational communities everybody talks about this kind of dynamic when we're talking about religion So you have the respected priest who's been in the in the theological circles for 30 years Most rational people don't have a difficulty saying, okay, well that man's probably deluded He probably thinks he knows what he's talking about But he's probably makes fundamental errors and maybe doesn't make that good arguments however People don't realize well, that's also true of people who are in physics or in philosophy who are in mathematics Those people who have been mastering their skill mastering the discipline for 30 years They've got tons of respect everybody respects them. They got a bunch of students and authority They've been published. Maybe they won Nobel Prizes in economics Doesn't mean they understand what they're talking about Maybe it means they think they understand what they're talking about But it doesn't mean that when actually confronted with an actual challenge in the real world of ideas That they can put together a coherent argument or even know what the hell they're talking about Two popular examples the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics Which is a bunch of ridiculous nonsense that somebody can study for just a few months and understand why it's ludicrous and superstition The other would be Cantor's in the the world of mathematics Cantor's supposed proof of the different sizes of infinity No, it's a pile of nonsense. I've written about both these things. You can check them out on my website I'll have a link in the description But it doesn't take a great deal of intelligence or training to realize that both of these well-respected theories from the experts are complete ludicrous Nonsense the next thing we can learn from this example is by asking the question why and how how And why is it the case that you could have an individual and a school of thought and a School of martial arts that is so disconnected from reality How is it in the world of ideas that you can have schools of thought that are so disconnected from reality? I believe it's the same answer in both it is because Certain disciplines in the martial arts most disciplines actually historically have been removed from real-world feedback They only accept criticism and challenges from people who Will agree to the rules of their their dojo style so in karate for example The the best karate practitioners are the best according to the karate rules And there's no for example You can't clinch and take down and a lot of karate styles and then do ground fighting or the people that are an aikido You have to you know, there's no hard strikes or the people that are in sometimes sport jiu-jitsu They don't do Gracie jiu-jitsu. They don't they're not connected the real world. They don't they don't allow punches to the face It's these it's insularity and the lack of let's say interdisciplinary criticism That is what results in these pockets of complete disconnected irrationalism where the best aikido practitioner in the world can be The best who's ever existed mastered it over 30 years of everyday training for eight hours and be completely destroyed By an amateur and Brazilian jiu-jitsu because that aikido practitioner has never engaged with the real world It doesn't have that real-world feedback about what works and what doesn't work The same thing is true where we're talking about ridiculous abstract theories in mathematics or in philosophy or even in areas like I said in physics When when the criticism that is allowed is not criticism across disciplines It's only those people who are professional philosophers only those people who are professional Physicist or professional economists that are allowed to comment in the ideas of the professionals or the Theologians who only accept criticism from other theologians that already agree with the basics already agree with the rules of the field That's where you get this dogmatism and that's where you get this parade of Delusion and nonsense where the emperor is wearing no clothes. He thinks he's clothed and beautiful But in reality, he's completely naked and the last thing I want to say about this and on this topic central notion in martial arts and in the world of ideas is don't give respect to people who have the credential it Doesn't matter how long the aikido practitioner has been practicing It doesn't matter how many trophies he has how many accolades he has and it doesn't matter how much How many awards the economist has won neither of those things matter because they are not representative of that person having a sound connection to reality Mastering a discipline when it's you only exist in that discipline Does not mean in any way that you understand the basics of what you're talking about or that your ideas are grounded in truth and Reality you have to treat each martial arts practitioner and each thinker in the world of ideas as an independent unique Entity regardless of his credentialing and evaluate his ideas or techniques on their own merit And if you can't see the engagement you can't see the aikido practitioner actually fighting with a martial artist But he's talking a big game, but he can't actually back it up That's usually a sign that the man is full of BS same thing in the world of ideas Those people who are content with only making sense to those who already agree with them are what we call Dogmatic and they are not just restricted to the theologians