Why Even Leftist Martial Artists Need Pedagogy (Patreon)

This was based on a conversation with Leftist martial artists

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If all it took to have left martial arts pedagogy was to be on the Left and a teacher, I wouldn't be spending months writing and thinking about this. I think that assumption that it's some kind of Christian baptism of "I take a magic pill of Left and everything I do is now Left" is quite dangerous. Because what people naturally default to are the defaults: what they're used to, legacy and tradition. Spending a long time in commercial gyms can sometimes be a disadvantage in that you become like fish, and the toxicity like water; you no longer see it. You might also not recognize how precious (cultish) you can be about your chosen art and either erase, deny, defend, or never mention some of the baked-in problems—reinforcing the cultishness and gaslighting. Going back to baptism, this is how you get people holier-than-thou to self-reflection, criticism, and change.

Pedagogy needs much thought and consideration because you're dealing with people's lives, safety, self-worth, and how they perceive community and organization. And often, even for Left martial artists, they have one set of ideas for the gym and another for outside, and they conflict. But it's bidirectional; it's not just about changing the gym. It's also recognizing, well, if it doesn't work on the small scale of the gym, how will it work on the large scale of the world? So for me, it's simply: how you do one thing is how you do all things.

– Sam