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dir/old_school/rant/guest/cc: W h a t i s K u n g F u |
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To most people, Kung Fu means one thing: 2 oriental guys beating the shit out of each other using moves that are impossible to perform by mere mortals. The dictionary gives us a definition of Kung Fu as being: kung fu (kung foo, koong, goong) n. The Chinese martial arts, especially those forms that are similar to karate. Often used to modify another noun: kung fu movies, kung fu exercises. Even the dictionary tips its hat to Kung Fu movies. But is that really what Kung Fu is all about? About old men with impossibly long beards and white hair that perform moves that would give the U.S. gymnastics team an inferiority complex? In the case of this site, probably not. Kung Fu refers to martial arts, or the art of war. War is waged on many planes of reality-- on open fields, on chess boards, and in board rooms. However, war is won and lost in only one place and that is the human mind. Our mind can be our greatest asset and also our greatest weakness. Thus, when we are faced with everyday problems, whether they be girlfriends, stupid people at work, or people on the television that make you wonder "How the fuck did this person get a job and why the fuck am I sitting here watching this piece of shit while they make more money than Ido?" We are at war. Wars are all around us. We have the Cola Wars, the Rating Wars, the operating system wars, and we are all caught in the middle, becoming casualties in a conflict that we are told we should not fight against. We should just merely accept these things and that we should be passive and conform to these things around us. Jesus and Buddha are thrown at us to show us examples of accepting our fates in a peaceful manner. Kung Fu is not about being passive and accepting things around us as facts of life. Kung Fu is all about verbalizing what your current enemy is doing and what you want to do about it. Jesus and Buddha may have been great people, but one got nailed to a cross for his efforts and the other one starved underneath a tree and was called enlightened. if starving is enlightenment, then there are 10,000 Buddhas in Manhattan at any given moment. Besides, passiveness is not what these guys taught. No, Kung Fu is about fighting, and in this case, it is about fighting the wars that go on to control our thoughts and actions. Everyday we are faced with stupidity, mediocrity, and sadness. We are let down by people we trust, misled by those we elect, and disappointed in our heroes. This web site echoes these feelings, but gives us a glimpse of hope in that the human spirit does not get crushed easily. We lash out and rebel against these thoughts and actions in an effort to win back the ground upon which our sanity is built. Sun Tzu, in "The Art of War" tells us that when the army is weary and its spirit dampened, others will seek to take advantage of this situation to plan an attack. We guard ourselves against being down and letting situations get to our spirit by speaking up about them. Bruce Lee writes that all actions that interfere with a path of harmony must be quickly and thoroughly destroyed. So what is Kung Fu? Kung Fu, in the end, is the art of overcoming and persevering. Flying old men aside, Kung Fu is about the protection of our sanity and about claiming back our rationale and our fortitude. It is therapy for the souls in all of us that says that enough is enough. Kung Fu is you. |