James Thomas Watermoon - The Way of Justice: Vital Principles of American Martial Art

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The Way of Justice

Vital Principles of American Martial Art

James Thomas Watermoon

Foreword by Ken Yamarashi

Copyright 2020 James Thomas Watermoon

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All rights reserved

Contents

Introduction

One of the most pressing questions humanity faces is how can people live peaceably among one another. Conflicts inevitably arise among individuals and communities. Therefore, finding ways to avoid destructive behaviors has led to inquiries on what is just, or proper, in human conduct.

The pursuit of justice consists of two parts: knowing what is right and enforcing it.

To secure what is right, people develop the capacity to do violence against transgressors, usually aided by tools and weapons, as well as by other individuals with whom they find common cause. This capacity is called martial because of the association with Mars, the Roman god of war.

War is, by its nature, destructive. Therefore, martial skill in pursuit of justice must be restricted to deterrence or to repel those imposing injustice.

The question then becomes one of knowing what justice is and when the use of force is justified.

Every society, from every culture, develops law as a means of codifying acceptable behavior. A neutral third party to help settle disputes is, according to John Lockes Second Treatise of Government, useful for overcoming the inconveniences of being a judge in ones own case. The most important aspect of law to have it accepted as legitimate by the community.

A constant plague upon humanity has been the perversion of justice, the subversion of law, on the part of a lawgiver that turns despotic. Rather than protecting people and their property, the so-called authorities use their monopoly position to further their own ends, all at the expense of their constituents.

The American colonists that seceded from Great Britain saw through the divine right of kings canard and understood that government was rightly a contract for security and justice services. They recognized that inherent to justice was a peoples right to alter or abolish a government that loses its legitimacy.

The American Founders inherited a long tradition of trying to design a system of government that could provide a secure space for its citizens to pursue a good life in peace and freedom. The republic they designed was an attempt to create a federation of free and independent States, each with their own unique creeds, cultures, and characteristics yet willing to work together to address res publica, the public thing, issues on which they held common concern.

The American republic was structured for mutual security and premised upon having the population armed, organized, and disciplined to execute the laws, repel invasions, and suppress insurrections. In other words, the American republic requires the citizenry to be skilled in martial art while also being thoroughly grounded in the principles of justice.

My friend and mentor, James Thomas Watermoon or Jim as I call him, has distilled a lifetime of martial art wisdom into a short volume that offers a practical and systematic way of understanding and implementing justice. Jim studied weapons-based and empty-handed martial art forms while living in Asia and also taught firearms skills to select clientele in the US.

Jim closely examined the principles of liberty underlying the founding of the republic and the pursuit of a more perfect union. What you will find in the following pages is a set of mutually reinforcing principles that logically build upon one another to render an ethical framework for knowing when the application of force is justified.

More importantly, Jim provides a clear philosophical pathway for defending justice, securing dignity, and promoting a good life for real people living peacefully in a civil society. This path, of course, must be protected by those skilled in martial art. Indeed, upholding the Constitution for the United States depends upon it.

That is why Jims presentation is so important. These principles are vital to fulfilling the American dream.

Ken Yamarashi

EverydaySamurai.Life

Preamble

Liberty and Security are mutually inherent and indispensable to the Welfare of Human Beings, to the Dignity of Persons, and to the Proper Pursuit of the Good Life. But there is no Liberty without Justice. There is no Justice without Private Property. There is no Private Property without Security. And there is no Security without privately owned Arms, whose possession is general and whose use is governed by the Principles of Justice and Propriety.

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Justice and Propriety provide for a condition of Limited Autonomy. Limited Autonomy is the essence of American Civilization, the origin of American culture, and the object of American governance. Culture can exist without Justice; Civilization cannot. The defining characteristic of Civilization is the Free choice of Justice as the measure of morality and the standard of synthetic law.

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Martial art is an essential element of culture, fundamental, universal and perennial; it has been defined as the systematic use of force in governance according to the laws of nature and the principles of philosophy. The only essential differences between one method of martial art and another are cultural and philosophic ones.

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The objects of this discourse are to identify American martial art as an element of culture, to define it as a function of Just and Proper self governance, and to formulate for it, a philosophy, a policy and a doctrine.

The Way of Justice

The American Dream is the dream of the Good Life. The Way of the Good Life is to assign Value at Will and to pursue it at Liberty without recourse to aggression.

The American Way is The Way of Justice. The Way of Justice is the obverse of The Way of the Good Life; it consists in the Proper Pursuit, Discharge and Defense of Justice, first by recourse to Reason and finally, by resort to force. To implement that Defense in Practice is the function of American martial art.

The martial art of the American republic may be defined as the systemic use of Countercoercion in Limited Autonomy by means of scientific method. It consists in the balanced integrity of Reason and force, governed by Empathy. Its sole object is the Proper Defense of Justice against aggression.

Justice consists in the possession and Free exercise of individual Rights. A Right is a warrant of Liberty. Liberty consists in Freedom from aggression and in Freedom of Proper action.

Propriety consists in non aggression; thus, every action is Proper, which involves no aggression.

Aggression consists in the initiation of the use of force in deliberate violation of any individual Right; thus no Rights exist which are not defensible by force against aggression.

Countercoercion consists in the Proper use of that force necessary to oppose aggression. To harm Human Beings is Just and Proper solely in the course of Countercoercion, wherein forcible compulsion, pain, suffering, injury or death must be inflicted to prevent or to curb aggression.

Deliberate or gratuitous violation of Rights in response to aggression is neither Just nor Proper. Such violation is not characteristic of Countercoercion, but of reverse aggression, which produces not Justice, but vengeance, returning one injustice for another; evil for evil.

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