Radical Civility

Cross posted from Blog Them Out of the Stone Age, Dec. 7

I’m now in the third week of my Gracie Jiu Jitsu class. The fundamentals class meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., and with one exception I’ve scrambled home in time to get there. The exception was on the day I had my annual physical. The doctor noted some tendinitis in both wrists, especially the left one. She advised letting them rest for a few days, then make sure to ice them down before and after each workout, and also take a pain reliever like Aleve or Ibuprofin. I’ve followed that system and thus far it’s worked out well.

I had supposed I might keep track of specific techniques as I learned them, but beyond generalities like take downs, maintaining and passing the guard, etc., I’m still pretty clueless. The most pronounced thing I’ve noticed is that I still have a lot of trouble keeping in mind the various components of a given move. Luckily the other students have been very patient and supportive. And a number of them report that it took them about eight weeks to really catch on, which makes me feel better.

When I’m not actually practicing jiu jitsu I’ve spent some time learning about its history, and at some point I may write a post on that, especially the explosive emergence of Gracie or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from relative obscurity to world prominence. For the moment, though, I want to focus on jiu jitsu as metaphor.

Media commentators occasionally use the term jiu jitsu to describe an instance in which one political party deploys a particular strategy and the other party neatly exploits it in such a way that it backfires. Or they will use it to describe how Al Qaeda has used the strengths of an open society against that society — such tactics were fundamental to the success of the 9/11 attacks. But the most common and sophisticated use of the term is in connection with nonviolent resistance.

In his classic study, The Power of Nonviolence (1934), Richard B. Gregg coined the term “moral jiu jitsu” to describe the principles undergirding Gandhi’s satyagraha as he had seen them operate in India. Martin Luther King, Jr. considered Gregg’s book one of five that most profoundly shaped his thought, and wrote the foreword to an edition published in 1960. (An abridged version of that edition is here.) Gregg argued that the use of physical violence by groups that seek to challenge a repressive order legitimizes a violent response by that order, and since that order usually has a far greater capacity for violent force, this is a losing strategy. A refusal to use violence, on the other, causes the repressive order to lose moral balance, in the same way that jiu jitsu causes an attacker to lose physical balance.

(Continued)

Since my last “Mood Watch” I went through yet another depression. This one lasted about eight days. It’s hard to know exactly when these things begin, although they lift so abruptly that there’s usually no ambiguity about the terminus. As in most cases, it didn’t prevent me from doing everything I absolutely had to do, but it wiped me out in terms of getting anything else done.

I’ve been OK — in good spirits, actually — for about ten days now. But the depressive spells have been so frequent since mid-September that, although individually I can correlate them to a particular circumstance, in aggregate it now looks more like one long depression with brief reprieves, which certainly suggests a strong biochemical underpinning. However, that’s really just an educated guess. I suspect that would be the case even if a gaggle of psychiatrists observed me every minute. There’s just so much about mood disorders we still don’t know.

One thing we do know: you can’t “snap out of” or “power through” a depression. I don’t get that kind of thing as much as I used to — in fact, most of my close friends are very supportive — but occasionally it still happens. And when it does, for the most part it reflects not a concern for me but rather for the person offering the “advice.” They find it inconvenient to be around someone who is depressed, and the easiest solution is to talk and act as if it isn’t an illness but a character defect.

Ironically, the effect is generally the reverse of the one intended, since it simply increases the sense of shame and isolation felt by a person suffering from depression. Those who experience strong, consistent support generally recover more quickly.

Cross-posted from Blog Them Out of the Stone Age.

According to Technorati, yesterday over 2,500 blog posts made mention of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I thought that probably the world could do without one more, but at least one of my readers disagreed, albeit without sufficient guts to offer his name or a valid email address. Of my post on political jui jitsu, he wrote, “This is the best post you could come up with…. typical.”

At first I thought this was merely an attempt to bait me. Then I noticed that preceding the sentence was the notation, “12/7/41.”

Although I can’t slake his thirst for one more remembrance of the day that FDR correctly predicted would live in infamy, I can at least commemorate the day on which FDR asked Congress for a declaration of war. That event occurred sixty-six years ago today.

Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress at 12:30 p.m. His address took six and a half minutes to deliver, after which the Senate and House of Representatives met separately to vote on a joint resolution for war. In the Senate, the resolution passed unanimously. Not so in the House. Majority Leader John W. McCormack (Democrat - Massachusetts), presented the resolution and urged suspension of the rules so that it could be voted upon immediately. Jeannette Rankin (Republican - Montana) instantly objected. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn (Democrat - Texas) instantly ruled her out of order.

Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin (Republican - Massachusetts) rose to endorse the resolution in a seven paragraph statement, commencing with the sentence, “Our country is today in the gravest crisis since its establishment as a republic.” Seven more members of congress, including the prominent isolationist Hamilton Fish (Republican - New York), also went on record with statements of support. Throughout the “debate,” Rankin repeatedly tried to gain the floor to register her dissent. Rayburn repeatedly refused to recognize her.

“Sit down, sister,” came a voice from the Democratic side of the aisle.

(Continued)

Once there was this kid who
Got into an accident and couldn’t come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when
The car had smashed so hard

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Once there was this girl who
Wouldn’t go and change with the girls in the change room
But when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn’t quite explain it
They’d always just been there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

But both girl and boy were glad
‘Cause one kid had it worse than that

‘Cause then there was this boy whose
Parents made him come directly home right after school
And when they went to their church
They shook and lurched all over the church floor
He couldn’t quite explain it
They’d always just gone there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

– Crash Test Dummies, God Shuffled His Feet (1993)