The Ego Has Branded: cults of personality dressed up like dojo

I have a couple of new adults in my dojo. What makes these guys different from any of my adult students is that they both come with some pretty long martial pedigrees. Both have yudansha rankings: one is a third dan in Wado-ryu, the other a third degree in Tae Kwon Do. The karate guy is still training and teaching with his dojo, he comes to my class to expand his horizons on a different style of karate. The other guy is patching over, as it were.

The latter gentleman and I had a good discussion the other night after class. He complimented me on my class and he mentioned to me that his TKD instructor was not the kinda guy one should stay with. I thanked him for the compliment and my inner student simultaneously nodded and bristled at my own experience with my former TKD instructor.

In fact, if you have seen the web-series Enter the Dojo, you've kind of seen the guy I used to train with in some ways. Then again, if you have been around the martial arts long enough, you have probably encountered someone like that guy.

My guy was a sheer cult of personality. Sure, he had some skill, but he was one of those guys who could charm the milk out of a cow. And as long as you did what he wanted, you were always in his inner sanctum. If you weren't, you worked to be. It was hard to see just what kind of guy he was at the time (I was young and stupid, I will admit). But, as time went on, I saw things that made me realize just what kind of person I was dealing with.

Here's a few things you that will likely tell you that you are working with a black-belt from hell:

1) he asks you to lie to his spouse about his whereabouts. On more than one occasion, my guy asked me to cover for him in case his wife ever asked where he got to after class. Of course, the downside to that is that he had created enough of a plausible story based on previous outings that it would be easy for her to accept. But on occasions where we did go out and he went on to pursue solo activities (read philandering), he would turn to us to cover his tracks if the wife was suspicious. Worse yet, the objects of his amorous efforts were often new and attractive students.

2) he holds himself as the sole authority on all things. Martial information is meant to be transmitted and shared. Yet, if you ever showed any knowledge that he did not possess, one of two things will happen: you wil be mocked and the information will be deemed useless or he will find a way to take credit for it. I found this when demonstrating any of my old karate stuff to him,

3) he demands control over you. I remember my first year of university was quite interesting. I ended up teaching satellite classes for him on the nights I was not teaching at the main class. Oh, and by the way, I never made any money... and paid monthly for the privilege of teaching. On a couple of nights when I had homework or projects, I was unable to make a class. He did not respond to my calls, and I tried to find a way to alert students. Because I did not fulfill HIS commitment, I was placed in coventry.

4) students come in two flavours: those that make him look good ... and those that pay the bills. We had two groups of people in his club. Those who won trophies and those that I referred to as 'fodder'. Fodder paid the bills and got some attention, but most of his time was spent working with those who would win him trophies or gain him glory. Occasionally, if fodder developed some skill or showed potential, they were taken out of the pasture and put on display. Picture it like the evil stepmother keeping you home from the ball while the chosen kids got to go to the dance.

5) lies my master told me. We did not start as a WTF club, but, at some point, he regained favour with his master just as the Korean Olympics were coming around and TKD was a demo sport (it was not a coincidence that that happened). I was promised a number of things regarding my ascension and position of responsibility only to find out when the time came around, he had another plan. And when I pushed for promises to be made good on, I got spanked down.

6) loyalty to him is paramount, but your place in the pecking order is variable. I made plans to attend school elsewhere, and when I asked for permission to train elsewhere, I was shat upon. Once, when I dared attempt to do something that he did not approve of, and sought the real master's permission, he created lies and spread rumours about me. Eventually, when this proved to work against him, he went to the master and created a story, then asked him to have me struck from the rolls of the WTF. The master complied.

Out I went. It smarted for a while, but then I started to see it for what it was. An unhealthy relationship. And like any unhealthy relationship, you don't realize that you are in one until you are out of it completely.

Then again, neither does the cult of personality. If you leave them, you are disloyal and unwelcome. They can't be the problem, must be you. You were the problem all along. Good thing you are gone now. Look at all these other people that love him. They think he is great. He is a very special being. Who do you have?

I vowed and declared I would never be part of a group like that again. And I held true to my word. I came close once, but I recognized the stink in time. However, a friend of mine was trapped up to his neck in it. And the cult was much larger than the one I was part of. So was the hype around the personality at the heart of the cult. He had an almost deity-like status. He demanded the filial piety from his subjects and controlled damn near all their actions, including the grading of black belts from individual schools, wherein even students of senior instructors were made to travel to the mecca of the ego for the privilege of grading under him and receive his sarcastic approval.

Thankfully, like the ego I dealt with, those folks close to him eventually smelled the stench that was masked by the personality. The guy I trained with has a tendency to absorb, chew up and spit out a new crop of taggers-on every few years. The person my friend used to train with has watched his organizational empire crumble to almost nothing. Yet, in place, rather than a new process being created, it would seem that the same paradigms have just entered new bodies. Sad, but I guess, like abusive environments, one will repeat the same behaviours because they are learned responses.

My premise is that, aside from the master at the head of the org, the person should never be larger than the art. Loyalty, respect, admiration - I agree that these things should exist throughout the structure. The relationships within should maintain the same form of hierarchical culture that was built in to karate since its inception. There is one master, yet there can be many sensei under that master. And with one teacher, there can be many students, seniors and juniors. The pecking order is not based on relationships or who is a better friend than anyone else. It is based on rank that is earned. But, the only person who deserves unwavering loyalty and support is the man at the top.

And funny thing, all they really ask us to do is to teach and spread their art to the best of our ability. Because, if they are a true master, they have learned that ego has nothing to do with what we do on the floor. In fact, my belief is that the higher they go, the less ego they have.

And that is a lesson I think we should all learn - and keep learning.

A dojo is a collective of people who come together to learn an art.

A cult of personality in a dojo is when the training is to be met equally with an intense devotion to the person in charge.

Loyalty for one's sensei is something that is cultivated through the training itself. It is earned through the relationship. If loyalty is commanded, perhaps it is time to look at another dojo.

What are your thoughts, dear reader? Have you met martial cults of personality? Have you been in one? Or is this all just my imagination? Share your thoughts in the comments.

PS all names have been removed from this post to protect the innocent... and the guilty. :)