Does rank matter YES and it always will, let me explain joe smoo down the street is a 9th degree BB and he demands 200.00 a month and joe smoo up the street is only gettint 95.00 because he is a 4th. So up the street guy finds two friends to cross rank and up his rank so he is now a 10th and also on the Soke council of the Universe, now he is getting 300.00 a month not because he knows more but because he is now the Soke of all Soke's. My point is simple people equate stripes to knowledge, when it should be the other way around. To me give me a person that has more years than me and can actually train me in something and make me learn some new material and has only a BB and that is fine by me.
I almost agree, but not quite. For many years, I was the SAME rank as someone clearly senior to me, having been a protege of my systems founder for many, many years. For many years after he passed, I outranked someone who clearly has more knowledge than I about many intricacies in our shared system. As I write this, I am outranked by guys who were brown belts, or brand spanking new blacks, when I was the same rank I am now, many years back.
More specifically, I'm a 5th in Parkers kenpo. There are guys who I absolutely consider my seniors who are the same -- and lower -- ranks as I. Conversely, there are guys who are 7ths, 8ths, and even 10ths, who I in no way consider to be my seniors, or anywhere near worthy of the stripes on their belts. There are 9ths in the system who are infinitely more deserving of respect as elder statesmen than many of the 10ths who outrank them.
There are several sets of "audiences" viewing ones actions and decisions at any point in time. There is the public, and they are the ones who care most about the stripes. Then there is the jury of our peers...those guys wearing the premature higher ranks have to look their betters in the eyes at tournaments and camps, and deal with knowing their peers are whispering unkindly behind their bakcs, if not outright talking smack as loudly as they can for all to hear.
I know my betters. And when they take the front of the class, I turn my knot to the side, and perk up an ear to learn what I might. Regardless of their style, background, whatever. Even regardless of who can beat whom...at a recent camp I was a guest instructor at, an oldster from another system showed to teach a segment. Nothing new offered, but the man offering it is a living icon, worthy of respect. I gave it gladly. Told the student I brought with me who was complaining about having already heard the content from other profs to shut up and train; that this man has absolutely earned the right to respect, and we will give it to him in spades.
Same camp had several guest profs who were "younger" in the arts than I, yet earned my definite respect as peers, because of their intelligence, commitment, earnestness, and work ethics. One from a really disreputable lineage history put on one of the best belt tests for a colored belt I've seen outside the Islands, and did it with (to me) all the right contexts in place. Props to them all; I learned much, and look forward to learning more, AND at some level continuing to be worthy (hopefully) of their respect and friendship in the years to come.
Flip side: I also recently walked out of a presentation by a guy from my system with more fame and stripes than I, cuz he was a dolt and talking nonsense that would get people hurt. I made sure he and his staff knew what I was doing, and why.
Earned rank is respected by those in the know; bought, schmoozed, or assumed rank is not. Simple, really.
D.
