I appreciate your response, and will address your points one at a time. I think perhaps that more of our disagreement is semantics and personal experience than actual disagreement.
Respectfully :asian: While I understand your point, I dont agree with some of this. Most Martial Artists are average citizens, they are not super heros going out on the streets living by their warrior codes, "deciding when to fight" evildoers and making the world safe for democracy.
If I implied that they were, then I apologize; let me expand my answer thusly: because of what I learned through TKD, helping to teach classes and then teaching a class of my own, I chose to become a teacher - my answer to building a better world. Not through warfare - but through education - and not because I think of my self as a superhero, but because the best way to build a better world - to make it safe for democracy, if you choose to look at that way - is to teach the next generation. I also do this when I teach TKD, by demonstrating to my students (many of them children and teens) how to persevere, to make and reach goals, to be willing to try difficult things, and so on.
The only "choosing" they have regarding fighting is staying withing the limits of the law regarding self defense. The same as any other non-martial artist.
See above. There are many ways to "fight" without being involved in a physical altercation.
In general most MA schools would serve their students better by sparing the "warrior code" mumbo jumbo and teach some basic law.
I do teach some basic law... I also teach some "'warrior code' mumbo jumbo" that looks amazingly like the code of ethics you cited in your post, which many people don't learn anywhere else. The basis of this code is:
Tenets
Courtesy
Integrity
Perseverance
Self-control
Indomitable Spirit
Student Oath
I shall observe the Tenets of Taekwon-Do
I shall respect my instructors and seniors
I shall never misuse Taekwon-Do
I shall be a champion of freedom and justice
I shall build a more peaceful world
There are many ways in which such a code can be implemented, and they are discussed periodically in class, including variations based on the age, gender, and experience of the students in the class - I would, for example, expect a different response from a 10 year-old than an adult, despite all being taught the same legal and moral codes.
Martial arts does have benefits for the average citizen in terms of awareness, self-confidence and unarmed fighting skills but lets not swell our heads. Into thinking we are "warriors".
Again, see above. I have never "swelled my head", although I have known students who have. But my definition of "warrior" encompasses more than simply martial skill.
Soldiers, LE, etc. did "make a choice" when they enlisted or took their jobs. They decided that they were willing to suborn their own personal freedoms and risk their lives for the freedoms of others. And in our age, they do it when they dont really have to. Most martial artists, like any smart citizen only fights when absolutely necessary. A "warrior" fights our enemies "under orders" so WE will hopefully never be forced to face them. Thats his "cause". A martial artist who honestly believes that they are on equal combative ground with a soldier or an armed professional is a fool living in a fools paradise.
Here is the distinction I was attempting to make. I, as a private individual, regardless of training, can choose to enter a situation or not. As a member of the armed forces, that choice is often taken away. The broad choice, to choose to join the armed forces and fight for one's country, has been made, but the choice of when, where, and how to engage in that fight is not, to my understanding, left to the individual soldiers to decide; they go where their orders send them. Nor did I ever claim, that I recall, that the average martial artist was on "equal combative ground with a soldier or an armed professional" - but while I have not served in the armed forces, I know many people who have, including quite a few of my TKD students, who told me, without exception, that they were taught little, if anything, other than how to kill quickly, and had little recourse other than killing, as they lacked alternative skills - and learning alternative skills, for situations in which killing was not needed, was one of their reasons for learning a martial art. If things have changed since I was given this information, then I do apologize, but that is the information on which I was basing my statement.
And the military (at least the American military) does have a "code" of conduct and adheres to their own standards of behavior and ethics:
When I went through Basic and Advanced training I had far more formal instruction in "codes" "ethics" and "values" than I EVER had in any martial arts class I ever participated in, observed, or heard of from someone else.
I have already given my basis for disagreement with this statement; I will say that different styles, and different organizations and even classes within styles, have been known to teach different things in different levels of concentration. I will also point out that quite a few people see no reason whatever for martial arts instructors to teach
any aspects of morality, a position I find irresponsible, at best.
