Nashibo

Some months ago, if not longer, I tripped across a clip from the 1970s Kung Fu TV series with a young man named Nashibo in it. I thought it was an especially retarded scene and didn't keep the clip, then couldn't find it again when I decided I wanted to write about it.

I got a lot out of watching that series as a child. It exposed me to a lot of philosophical ideas, but I vehemently disagree with one of the memes of forgiveness that ran through it.

Kwai Chang Caine, played by David Carradine, is a half Chinese, half American youth who goes to the Shaolin temple as a child after his parents are murdered and his maternal grandfather finally dies, leaving him entirely alone in the world. He's accepted when other children are turned away because he already has table manners and respect for his elders which was taught to him by his family, probably by his grandfather.

A very large part of his story is trying to make his peace with the murder of his parents. He eventually does stop being eaten up with anger and other negative feelings about it, but he arrives there over many years while growing up in a Shaolin temple where he is fed, safe, surrounded by people who care about him, being given a substantial education and significant training in martial arts.

Shaolin priests trained in Kung Fu believed a man of peace needs to be strong. They were fierce fighters and on one or more occasions, saved the butts of the Chinese government only to have the government turn around and go "Holy FUCK YOU people are scary SHIT! I think I should exterminate you to protect my political power!"

I'm not well versed in Chinese history. Presumably, that didn't go well for the backstabbing government types.

As a young adult, Kwai Chang Caine kills the nephew of the emperor in self defense. He's immediately declared wanted dead or alive with a substantial price on his head. With the help of the Shaolin temple, he flees China and travels to America, in part hoping to find a White half brother who shares the same father.

He travels parts of the western US during the Wild West era and every episode has him fighting the good fight for justice and righting wrongs and so forth because he can because he's a highly educated and highly trained warrior priest.

And in some episodes, he encourages people he helped to be peaceable loving people like him, minus the many years of education and martial arts training that empower him to not give a flying fuck what anyone thinks and to live by his values no matter the ridiculous levels of local corruption or whatever.

My recollection is Nashibo wants to kill the man who has been abusing him and his family for years and Caine talks him out of it and tells him to not be like his abuser. 

I'm quite certain that if the story was real, then the minute Caine left, things would go back to business as usual and possibly be even more abusive because of Nashibo and his mother and Caine being a pain the ass temporarily for his abuser or abusers.

I've spent a lot of years working on learning to write well and for me a major question has been how to not be like Caine in that regard. A major question is how to han people the education and martial arts training that gave Caine his sense of peace with himself and the world rather than suggesting people emulate his attitude without the kick ass competence he had to secure his safety, escape his captors, defeat his enemies without a gun because his hands and feet are deadly weapons etc.

I'm quite confident that a lot of people cling to their anger as a shield to try to protect themselves from being hurt again. I try hard to encourage people to find a better shield so they don't feel they NEED their anger rather than LECTURING them that being angry is somehow inherently bad.