Question 099: Certificate mills

Fighting is not string theory physics; it is very simple; it requires absolutely no training or education. Every person is born knowing how to fight; it is instinctive. A completely untrained person, who thinks he or she is fighting for his or her life, will take bites of flesh from the lips, ears, genitals, etc, claw off sheets of skin, jab eyes, yank out hair, break fingers, etc. and would probably defeat a trained fighter who was not fighting for his or her life, especially since most martial arts techniques do not train to face these types of attacks. No one has ever invented a new way of hand-to-hand fighting; people merely re-label and repackage age-old techniques. Fighting is instinctual; martial arts are merely attempts by people to codify and refine these instincts, make them more palatable to the masses, and permit humans to act on their fighting instincts in a relatively safe manner. We do not more “master” to “found” any more martial arts.
Martial arts are similar to companies. When as new company that offers a new product first opens, all its employees think the product is the greatest thing since sliced bread. As the company markets the product and develops base of customers, if it sells enough of the product, it may decide to go public and sell stock. A novice investor may think this is a great company and buy into its initial public offering. If the company prospers, the value of the investor’s stock will rise; however, if the company folds, the stock will be worthless. It is much the same with martial art instructors, schools, and organizations. If you buy into a new one with all your time, effort, and money, you may prosper if it survives, or you may lose everything if it folds, including the value of your rank. However, if you buy into a well-established company or martial art instructor, school, or organization, your chances of it still being around and relevant decades from now are greatly increased. People who follow some self-proclaimed master may prosper, but the odds are that it will turn out to be a waste of time, effort, and money.
There are good and bad martial arts, instructors, schools, and organizations. All long as people are aware of what constitutes a good or bad martial art, instructor, school, or organization, they may make informed choices as to which to associate themselves.