Mental aikido: Why?
Zon, 12/04/2005 - 23:00 — Nynke Etk FokmaI was asked about my reference to "mental aikido" in preventing creative constipation.
In the usual alpha business ways, we can perceive aggressive competitive behavior of beings (male aspect) intending to prevent promiscuity of potential receivers and developers (female aspect) by isolation in terms of ownership of code, and sometimes even by intimidation like threatening to sue.
In open source, code ownership is "collective" with the help of the GNU and creative commons licences. Agile and other blogs weave our words coded thoughts, and hence we freely exchange our thoughts, without ownership. All of these are procreation strategies that enable evolutionary diversification. Like, where not only the alpha male and female will have their codes in the next generations of code.
Apparently, my coding is non-aggressive, serving diversity and propagation of, for example, open source or open heart individuating codes, and my intent with practicing "mental aikido" is not to oppose aggressive strategies. It is to not be receptive to aggressive strategies, and to avoid aggressive beings as much as I can. The niches are large enough, and we can flow in other directions than where claims on future potential landscapes are made. And if and when I do become visible as foreign element with "other" procreation strategies, I keep in mind aggressive alpha beings can have a variety of responses:
- They can ignore me/us, like we're believed to be too small to be of interest. I project that I promise not to be too filling (to put it mildly), and that I am certainly not a female of their own kind in receptable time windows.
- They can try to encapsulate me/us if we're perceived as prey or as attractive female aspect for an exchange, like when we are approached with a deal for a potential patent on a piece of to be co-created code. I project either disinterest or flatness, or, when in spy mode, may go along with matters for a while, to get what they are really up to, or to practice some kata's for further development of other strategies that might work, or both.
- They can become aggressive when I/we are perceived as potential threat to their ways of getting what they want. I prevent projecting I am own kind male aspect, and I prevent projecting enough body as another kind of being, so as not to be perceived as a threat for the entire agressor kind.
In the latter two cases, since manipulation and bullying are perceived as best working strategies by aggressive four-leggeds, after a few wars that utterly fail to harm me/us and in which they only manage to harm themselves, the smarter ones will develop new strategies and the code of aggressors will hopefully quickly fade into the past, making room for more fully human ways.
The most outstanding feature of physical training found in Aikido is the repetitive practice of various motions known as kata (forms), until rational and unforced movement flows naturally throughout the body. By unifying body, mind and ki (internal energy), and by utilizing internal order together with physical balance, the hidden potential of each person may be expressed through the dynamism of technique. Using circular motions, Aikido harmonizes and neutralizes the aggressor’s force. Training involves physical, mental, spiritual and ethical disciplines. It includes empty hand techniques, sword, stick, and knife defenses. Unique among martial arts, Aikido minimizes the need to maintain control of situations. (USAF-Western Region)
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