Sigung86
2nd Black Belt
I've kind of given this a bit of though, and after a slight bit of research, have come to the following conclusion regarding the use of the term Master. Back in the day, the term "Master" was a term of reverence used for the extremely senior person(s) in the art.
"Master" was a title given to the recipient by approbation of her/his students, and peers, but was not an OFFICIAL rank. One of the shortcomings that I see with the assignment of rank to the term master is that most everyone wants to be one of THEM ... Even only if involved in the fine art of putting worms on hooks to catch fish....
And so, we now have the situation whereby everyonE who is anyone is a Master of some sort. Some even have and use the titles applied as defined by SGM Ed Parker.
In that case, I liken them, in my tiny shell-like mind to the ranks as applied in the military to the ranks of Colonel and General (except for the Navy which uses a totally alien rank concept )
A Lieutenant Colonel and a Colonel (Here after called a "Full Bird" to differentiate between them and Lieutenant Colonels, aka "Light Colonels)...
Both of which are entitled to the courtesy rank name of Colonel. Except for Kentucky Colonels, Auctioneers who carry the nom-de-guerre of Colonel, and corn, which is a totally different type of Kernel and no one salutes a Corn Kernel.
Then ... In keeping with the philosophy of "more is less" that we use in traditional belt ranking titles, 3rd brown is less than 2nd brown is less than 1st brown ... The General ranks are (again with exception of Navy rank which is really from the Martian Military):
Brigadier General - Lowest
Major General - next highest
Lieutenant General - even a little bit higher
General - Last but not least...
Interestingly, in the Non-general ranks a Major out ranks a Lieutenant, much as in the black belt ranks where a 2nd black is higher than a third... While at the brown belt ranks 3rd is lower than 2nd is lower than 1st.
A little reverse psychology for some reason of logic that escapes me. Perhaps to continue with the allegory of the degrees of rank, the 3, 2, 1 designation on the Brown belts is indicative of the 3, 2, 1 countdown of NASA fame which is preparatory to a hopefully successful launch where in the term zero, or launch indicates a take off and then the numbers (speed, altitude, etc) all increment in a positive fashion, 1, 2, 3,... as in increasing numbers on the Black Belt side of rank.
Ahem ... but I digress. The Many formal terms used to title the wearer as a General is dependent upon the number of stars on her/his shoulder boards, or collars. Nonetheless, the "generally" used term for all these various grades of general is ... er .... mmmm .... "General".
And so ... Regardless of rank:
8th Black = Associate Master
9th Black = Master
10th Black = Senior Master of the Art
I am relatively certain that ALL the owners of the rank* that uses the title of MASTER in some shape or form, are quite willing to dispense with said title for expediency, and the fact that, everyone knows their place in the "Pecking Order"**. :rofl:
*Several on-line Thesaurus' use give the following synomyms for the word, RANK:
bad, dank, disagreeable, disgusting, evil-smelling, feculent, fetid, foul, funky*, fusty*, gamy*, graveolent, gross*, high, humid, loathsome, mephitic, moldy, musty, nasty, nauseating, noisome, noxious, obnoxious, off, offensive, olid, pungent, putrescent, putrid, rancid, reeking, repulsive, revolting, smelly, sour, stale, strong, strong-smelling, tainted, turned
coarse, dense, excessive, extreme, exuberant, fertile, flourishing, fructiferous, grown, high-growing, junglelike, lavish, lush, luxuriant, luxurious, overabundant, overgrown, productive, profuse, prolific, rampant, rich, semitropical, tropical, vigorous, wild, arrant, blatant, capital, complete, conspicuous, consummate, downright, egregious, excessive, extravagant, flagrant, glaring, gross*, noticeable, outright, outstanding, perfect, positive, rampant, sheer, thorough, total, undisguised, unmitigated, utter,abusive, atrocious, coarse, crass, dirty, filthy, foul, gross*, indecent, nasty, obscene, outrageous, raunchy, scurrilous, shocking, smutty, wicked.ancestry, authority, birth, blood, cachet, capacity, caste, circumstance, class, classification, condition, consequence, degree, dignity, distinction, division, echelon, estate, esteem, family, footing, grade, hierarchy, level, nobility, note, order, paramountcy, parentage, **PECKING ORDER, pedigree, place, position, primacy, privilege, quality, reputation, rug-ranking, seniority, situation, slot, sort, sovereignty, sphere, state, station, stature, status, stock, stratum, supremacy, type,echelon, file, formation, group, hierarchy, line, queue, range, row, sequence, series, string, tier,align, arrange, array, assign, assort, button down*, class, dispose, establish, estimate, evaluate, fix*, give precedence, grade, include, judge, line up, list, locate, marshal, order, peg, pigeonhole*, place, position, put, put away, range, rank out, rate, regard, settle, size up, sort, tab, typecast, valuate, value,antecede, be classed, be worth, belong, come first, count among, forerun, go before, have supremacy, outrank, precede, stand,common run, common soldiery, common sort, forces, grass roots, majority, plebeians, proletariat, ranks,
"Master" was a title given to the recipient by approbation of her/his students, and peers, but was not an OFFICIAL rank. One of the shortcomings that I see with the assignment of rank to the term master is that most everyone wants to be one of THEM ... Even only if involved in the fine art of putting worms on hooks to catch fish....
And so, we now have the situation whereby everyonE who is anyone is a Master of some sort. Some even have and use the titles applied as defined by SGM Ed Parker.
In that case, I liken them, in my tiny shell-like mind to the ranks as applied in the military to the ranks of Colonel and General (except for the Navy which uses a totally alien rank concept
)A Lieutenant Colonel and a Colonel (Here after called a "Full Bird" to differentiate between them and Lieutenant Colonels, aka "Light Colonels)...
Both of which are entitled to the courtesy rank name of Colonel. Except for Kentucky Colonels, Auctioneers who carry the nom-de-guerre of Colonel, and corn, which is a totally different type of Kernel and no one salutes a Corn Kernel.
Then ... In keeping with the philosophy of "more is less" that we use in traditional belt ranking titles, 3rd brown is less than 2nd brown is less than 1st brown ... The General ranks are (again with exception of Navy rank which is really from the Martian Military):
Brigadier General - Lowest
Major General - next highest
Lieutenant General - even a little bit higher
General - Last but not least...
Interestingly, in the Non-general ranks a Major out ranks a Lieutenant, much as in the black belt ranks where a 2nd black is higher than a third... While at the brown belt ranks 3rd is lower than 2nd is lower than 1st.
A little reverse psychology for some reason of logic that escapes me. Perhaps to continue with the allegory of the degrees of rank, the 3, 2, 1 designation on the Brown belts is indicative of the 3, 2, 1 countdown of NASA fame which is preparatory to a hopefully successful launch where in the term zero, or launch indicates a take off and then the numbers (speed, altitude, etc) all increment in a positive fashion, 1, 2, 3,... as in increasing numbers on the Black Belt side of rank.
Ahem ... but I digress. The Many formal terms used to title the wearer as a General is dependent upon the number of stars on her/his shoulder boards, or collars. Nonetheless, the "generally" used term for all these various grades of general is ... er .... mmmm .... "General".
And so ... Regardless of rank:
8th Black = Associate Master
9th Black = Master
10th Black = Senior Master of the Art
I am relatively certain that ALL the owners of the rank* that uses the title of MASTER in some shape or form, are quite willing to dispense with said title for expediency, and the fact that, everyone knows their place in the "Pecking Order"**. :rofl:
*Several on-line Thesaurus' use give the following synomyms for the word, RANK:
bad, dank, disagreeable, disgusting, evil-smelling, feculent, fetid, foul, funky*, fusty*, gamy*, graveolent, gross*, high, humid, loathsome, mephitic, moldy, musty, nasty, nauseating, noisome, noxious, obnoxious, off, offensive, olid, pungent, putrescent, putrid, rancid, reeking, repulsive, revolting, smelly, sour, stale, strong, strong-smelling, tainted, turned
coarse, dense, excessive, extreme, exuberant, fertile, flourishing, fructiferous, grown, high-growing, junglelike, lavish, lush, luxuriant, luxurious, overabundant, overgrown, productive, profuse, prolific, rampant, rich, semitropical, tropical, vigorous, wild, arrant, blatant, capital, complete, conspicuous, consummate, downright, egregious, excessive, extravagant, flagrant, glaring, gross*, noticeable, outright, outstanding, perfect, positive, rampant, sheer, thorough, total, undisguised, unmitigated, utter,abusive, atrocious, coarse, crass, dirty, filthy, foul, gross*, indecent, nasty, obscene, outrageous, raunchy, scurrilous, shocking, smutty, wicked.ancestry, authority, birth, blood, cachet, capacity, caste, circumstance, class, classification, condition, consequence, degree, dignity, distinction, division, echelon, estate, esteem, family, footing, grade, hierarchy, level, nobility, note, order, paramountcy, parentage, **PECKING ORDER, pedigree, place, position, primacy, privilege, quality, reputation, rug-ranking, seniority, situation, slot, sort, sovereignty, sphere, state, station, stature, status, stock, stratum, supremacy, type,echelon, file, formation, group, hierarchy, line, queue, range, row, sequence, series, string, tier,align, arrange, array, assign, assort, button down*, class, dispose, establish, estimate, evaluate, fix*, give precedence, grade, include, judge, line up, list, locate, marshal, order, peg, pigeonhole*, place, position, put, put away, range, rank out, rate, regard, settle, size up, sort, tab, typecast, valuate, value,antecede, be classed, be worth, belong, come first, count among, forerun, go before, have supremacy, outrank, precede, stand,common run, common soldiery, common sort, forces, grass roots, majority, plebeians, proletariat, ranks,
