Amazing. An intelligent and eloquent response to a potentially flame-ridden post...
Such a refreshing change for internet conversation!
Correct me if i'm wrong, but your contention with Bruce Lee seems to centre around his contention that forms/kata are stagnant, and that real combat is fluid, and in constant motion
That is one contention. The thing of it is, very simply, that kata are reference books, manuals for training, documents written in motion and explained through movement instead of words on paper. They are drills, quite similar to any other drill, though with more going on "behind the scenes" than some drills (though admittedly there are some drills that get much more done than forms training).
Real combat
is fluid - there is no argument there. Real combat is an ugly, sticky, messy affair and techniques are usually much less pretty or perfect in a fight than they are in the dojo. However, we still practice to perfect those techniques to they will be performed closer to perfection than to crap. But the point of this contention is that Bruce was not original on this thought. Traditional arts, at least the ones that are still "alive" (and there are plenty of "dead" arts out there), pass this info on to their students. I agree that there are plenty of arts that need(ed) a wake up call from Brucie Boy, but there are equally as many that have arisen due to his influence that are just as deluded as the ones Bruce railed against (there is a JKD practitioner here in Japan that I have come in contact with that said a particular method of technique was "not allowed" by his instructor... is that in keeping with Bruce's guidance? JKD is what they claim to do, yet they limit their responses... Another example of someone falling victim to the "classical mess" of stagnant training, and it is within his own system!).
OKay, well, you dont agree. Did he personally remove all knowledge of forms from the earth, or to the best of anyone's knowledge prevent anyone from practicing forms? Nope. Nor did he burn any books, or carry out a witchhunt of traditional MA's (hyperbole, i know, and tongue in cheek i assure you, but i think it demonstrates my point).
Point taken. Perhaps I am too hard on Bruce. But I guess the thing that chaps my backside is the fact that his misinterpreted information has such strong influence. So many well-meaning martial artists and instructors read the Tao of JKD, see the words, but fail to get the meaning behind them. Then they quote and quote and quote, but never really get a handle on what they are talking about. Then they teach students their brand of thinking, and it continues to replicate like a virus. Pretty soon, there are tons and tons of half-a$$ schools teaching ka-ka to wide-eyed, awe-struck Jet Li wannabes, and the crap schools outnumber the good schools (both traditional and non-traditional - don't want to convey the impression that I think all non-traditional stuff sucks, because it doesn't) 150 to 1. That is what gnaws at my nether regions.
End Rant. :soapbox:
I fail to see how Sigung Lee has cuased any "damage"...
Again, see above rant. Maybe I am too hard on ol' B.L. It wasn't his actions directly that lopped off the right arm of MA. It was the actions of the generations of booger heads that thought they were following in his footsteps of liberation but were really just contributing to the morass of MA in the US.
My apologies to B.L., wherever he may be (if he is reading this...). :asian:
He had a view on Martial Arts. He expressed it...eloquently.
Well, I don't know if "eloquent" is a word I would use... I think his Philosophy degree did more damage to his thinking than a good English degree would have done... He does appear to be very intelligent, but having a few philosophy classes behind me, I can see where some of the debating and rhetorical language seeps in... I found a lot of what he wrote to be initially confusing, and couched in excessively verbose style. He could have said the same things, but in much simpler language.
Anyway.
If you don't agree...well, okay. Don't practice in the tradition of his philosophy.
I don't, though I will admit I often wonder just how much of JKD thinking ended up in what I was taught by my teacher...
The other "legitimate" MA's still exist, and are still widely practiced.
This is also a good point, one that bears remembering (when I get my panties in a wad over the "eclectic" and "neo-classical" upstarts). It also speaks to the quality of some of the classical arts that Bruce fought against (and to the staying power of the questionable arts that are sold to the ignorant).
And as for "legitimate traditional arts", well, they had to be new once, and when new were probably "repackaged MA, resold as a new product", too.
I couldn't agree more. All the so-called traditional arts that are commonly practiced now, are really only a few decades to a few hundred years old... Only a few lifetimes, really. Shotokan is only about 80 - 90 years old, Kyokushin is just coming up on 60. The art I study has just gone legal (turns 21 this year), and even JKD is beginning to be considered as a traditional style (I am sure that Bruce would roll in his grave if he heard that!). All Shotokan was was repackaged arts combined by Funakoshi, Kyokushin was a reorganization of Shotokan and some other stuff picked up by Oyama. The art I study is Baixingquan, Xingyiquan, Taijiquan and Baguazhang lumped into a blender, set on puree and voila! Bruce did how many arts? Wing Chun, Taiji, Savate, Arnis, Boxing... So your comment is dead on the money.
The Tao of JKD was Bruce Lee's. His expression of thoughts on martial arts are less legitimate than anyone else's?
Yes. They are less legitimate than mine.
I am the ruler of time, space and dimension, and I say so. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
No, his views are no less legitimate than anyone else's. My (somewhat modified, now) point has only ever been that those who thought he was a revolutionary thinker were either walking in the dark to begin with, or complete simpletons. He just smacked everyone in the face with information that had been around all along, just apparently not being practiced by most.
Thanks for the comments, and for opening my eyes on my own views.
Gambarimasu.
:shrug: 
