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Absurd Krav Maga
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
August 1, 2024, Meyersdal, South Africa
A scene from the classic play, Waiting for Godot, does anything really make sense in this life?
Does anything make sense in this life? Good people get sick and die too young, cancer eats away at a dear loved one as we watch them slowly deteriorate, good upstanding citizens, do-gooders, get shot dead in the street, fine families suffer a home invasion, a nation gets attacked and the whole world stands silent once again while women are raped, and human beings are mutilated.
Do you feel this is absurd? Or does it make sense to you? Is this all part of a greater plan, a Divine Comedy? Or is life meaningless and random?
If you have ever engaged in any of these questions then welcome to the club of Existentialist philosophers, you are joining a club that includes such distinguished names as Søren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others. This group tries to understand life, to deal with the contradictions, to understand what seems un-understandable, to deal with the absurd, the unknown, the confusing, the frustrating and the anger provoking, and hopefully at their meetings they also serve coffee.
Some believe that every detail of life is in the hands of all knowing God, others believe that life is totally random, there is no judge and there is no judgement, and others believe there is a combination of both. To each according to his belief. What we have in common is the struggle. And this relates directly to our Krav Maga training...stay tuned.
The concept known as The Notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning in the world, no pre-ordained plan, but only that meaning which we assign to it, nothing beyond this. If someone is attacked, we do not dismiss it as beyond our control but rather we seek to understand it; could it have been prevented, could a different approach lead to different results? Ultimately, we cannot know. Perhaps it was God who ordained that today you shall die, or perhaps you failed to take the precautions you should have taken. Whatever your belief, we should assume our role in the Divine Plan (or lack thereof) and do our very best, as the simple saying goes, God helps those who help themselves.
Thus, we do not accept our fate, but rather we train, we do all that we can to avoid trouble, or, if need be, deal with it and give our troubles some trouble. Thus, we have our philosophy in action.
In this Notion of the Absurd the philosophers feel that life becomes absurd due to the incompatibility between human beings and they world they inhabit. We must struggle in this world, but to make sense of it we need to understand it, once we understand this world it will seem less absurd to us. While the philosophers see life as meaningless, with no absolute morality or fairness, the believers see it differently. But we all see that life certainly feels unfair. Both the secular philosophers and the rabbis of the Talmud deal with this question; the apparent lack of logic in the world and its inherent unfairness, the eternal question - why do bad things happen to good people? Why do human beings suffer so much in this life? Why do we get attacked?
Man makes his decisions
Many blame God, but it is man who makes his decisions. Søren Kierkegaard believes that absurdity is limited to actions and choices of human beings. These are considered absurd since they issue from human freedom, undermining their foundation outside of themselves. i.e. we are the cause of our own troubles. Because of the world's absurdity, anything can happen to anyone at any time and a tragic event could plummet someone into direct confrontation with the absurd. Many of the literary works of Kierkegaard and Kafka contain descriptions of people who encounter the absurdity of the world.
We face an absurd world, because people are absurd. Why they are this way, I will leave to the great philosophers to debate, what we must do is prepare to face this evil, in all its forms. We will train, we will develop the best techniques, we will be prepared...as much as one can prepare for the unknown.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."(Søren Kierkegaard)
Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt hall of fame, USA and Europe.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?
What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?
All that and more in this unique book.
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