Renegade said:
If this is true then no credit was given to his teacher, Delphin Lopez or his teacher Anciong Bacon.
I am going to try not to "slam" anyone here until I have a chance to meet/play with the man or his students myself, or before my Teacher has the chance to meet with him or talk with him face to face (if that ever happends), because until I know all sides outside "internet" stuff, I don't feel that it is my place. So...bare with me here.
It appears that Atillo is attempting to appeal to a higher authority, and that he is not being straight forward about his lineage. In other words, Everyone else who claims Balintawak agrees that Anciong is the top of the family tree for the art. Even though he learned from the Saavadre family, it is clear that his developement was unique enough, in comparison to others from the same lineage, to start his own system. This is evident when you compare Doce Pares to Balintawak; there are as many similarities as differences, and it is clear that the styles are different, even though the lineage of both can be traced to the Saavadre family.
So, every other Balintawak player accept Atillo agree's to be on a similar playing field, in that they all regard Anciong as the top of the family tree. Atillo, it appears, does not want to be on this playing field, so he is attempting to appeal to a "higher authority" then Anciong by acrediting both his father and Saavadre's (Anciongs teacher, ironically) with his instruction. By appealing to this authority, he puts himself on the same tier as Anciong, thus making everyone else who claims Anciong as the top of the family tree "below him." Furthermore, by fabricating the idea that he was able to beat Anciong in a "play" match, he now puts himself above even Anciong himself.
Now, of course, only his students will buy this premises. Everyone else on the planet see's that there is something fishy going on here, and that the facts aren't matching up.
Now, there are some obvious problems with what has happened here. For one, the biggest problem with this, or ANY kind of posturing with regards to lineage, rank, title, or status, is that NONE OF THESE ARE CONDUSIVE TO SKILL. There is a logical falicy called "argumentum ad verecudiam" which basically means that you appeal to a higher authority to try to determine an arguement, which doesn't make the arguement true. When people try to posture with lineage, rank, or status, then this is exactly what is occuring. In this case, the arguement is, "Atillo's lineage goes beyond Anciong Bacon, so he must be "better" then everyone else under Anciong's lineage!" This would be equally as illogical as me saying, "I can beat up so and so because I have a black belt, and he has a brown belt." The only thing that determines who has more skill is if practioners have the chance to test each others skill out to "prove" who is better, and lineage or rank will not make this any different.
Problem #2 is that a lot of the claims that are being made publically have no actual proof behind them. When you make a claim, the burden of proof is on YOU, not everyone else. If you make a claim, especially if it is a claim that seems very unbelievable, then you have to expect that people want to see proof. If you can't provide proof, then you shouldn't state the claim publically in the first place. So, let's say that I beat Mike Tyson in an arm wrestling match (I didn't, but lets just say). I might tell you this over some beers, where I don't care if you believe it or not. But, I am not going to put it up on a website or on the internet or in my marketing materials unless I can provide evidence that this event really occured (if called on), otherwise I will be called a liar. The point is, when you make a claim that can't be verified, you risk being looked at as a lying. This often causes you to have to try to verify the claim through more shakey evidence, which makes you look worse. Or, some people will resort to outright lying which causes another trap altogether.
Problem #3 Lying breeds more lies. Maybe Atillo decided to inflate a story here or there to market himself. Maybe it was his students. Maybe it was a mixture of both. Maybe stories just got inflated mysteriously by accident. Regardless, the inflation of credability is a lie. And lie's reduce your credability to practically nothing. However, the biggest problem with lies is if and when they are called out, you are now put between a rock and a hard place. You can either admit that you lied, therefore damaging your credability. Or, you can stick to the lie and try to cover it up. The later usually takes even MORE lies and inflated stories to do so. The fish ends up getting so big that no one believes you except your "followers" and your credibility is damaged even more-so then if you would have just admitted to lying in the first place.
So these are the problems that Atillo and his group has. I am not going to sit here and say that he isn't skilled, or that his students aren't skilled. I have never seen them to know one way or the other. I am not here calling Atillo a liar, at least not at this time. I am here to say that Atillo seems to have caught himself between a rock and a hard place. There are claims out there that are "big fish" to the public eye. I am not sure what started it initially, but the irony is that some information started for marketing reasons; information that may not be entirely true, or may be true but unverifiable. This information was challanged, so more and more claims came out, causing a snowball effect.
Whether deserved or not, the "Fish" is so big now that it has become uncontrolable, and can barely fit in the lake. The majority of the players in FMA circles do not believe Atillo's claims 100%. I am not trying to be a jerk here by saying this, I am just stating the cold hard facts. The irony is that if this "fish" was created for marketing reasons, it has had the opposite effect.
Now, I know I said I wasn't going to "slam" anyone, so please note that this isn't the intent of my post. I did not say Atillo was a bad person, unskilled, or a "liar." But I am stating the cold, hard facts as to how he is percieved, and the dilemma that he has created for himself.
I have done P.R. work before, and I know a fair amount about marketing oneself. I worked with an international Law Firm who had built up a bad reputation, and I helped to reverse the public perception of the firm through client contact, marketing, and advertisements. I would be happy to offer my advice and help as to how to "reverse" this dilemma to Atillo and his students if I ever get the chance to meet them, and if this subject matter is brought up. So, before Atillo's students or anybody else trys to discredit or slam me and my post, I suggest that you realize that I am only stating the facts, and that I am willing to help rather then hurt Atillo and his situation.
:asian:
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