Aikido And The Culture Wars | Miles Kessler

What are your Aikido values?

Is loyalty to your teacher one of the highest values?

What about freedom of speech?

Individual rights?

Respect for hierarchy?

Equality?

Equity?

Diversity?

Tradition?

When these values agree, there is usually no problem.

But when they collide, things become much more interesting.

Because underneath many conflicts in Aikido are not merely disagreements about technique, etiquette, or personalities.

They are conflicts of values.

This became especially clear to me in 2019 while following a gender-equity dispute within the United States Aikido Federation.

The details of that particular dispute belong to a specific moment in Aikido history.

But the deeper question is still relevant:

What happens when people who love the same art are operating from different systems of values?

That is where Aikido enters the culture wars.

What Do I Mean By “Culture Wars”?

The term culture wars describes conflicts between different worldviews and the values associated with them.

One useful developmental lens distinguishes among three broad orientations:

traditional

modern

postmodern

These are not boxes that perfectly describe individual people.

Most of us contain values from all three.

But each worldview tends to emphasize different things.

Traditional Values

Traditional values tend to emphasize:

• loyalty

• respect

• discipline

• commitment

• hierarchy

• honor

• conformity

• obedience

• lineage

• established standards of right and wrong

Within Aikido, traditional values can be deeply important.

They preserve lineage.

Protect transmission.

Honor teachers.

Create discipline.

Give students a container strong enough to support serious practice.

But taken too far, the shadow of traditionalism can become rigidity, unquestioned hierarchy, suppression of dissent, or loyalty at the expense of honest inquiry.

Modern Values

Modern values tend to emphasize:

• individual rights

• equality

• freedom of speech

• autonomy

• rationality

• achievement

• objectivity

• critical thinking

• accountability

Modernity challenges the assumption that authority should automatically be accepted simply because it is traditional.

In Aikido, modern values can support clearer standards, greater transparency, individual agency, and the right to question leadership.

But modernity has its own limitations.

It can become overly individualistic.

It can dismiss tradition too quickly.

It can confuse freedom with the absence of responsibility.

Postmodern Values

Postmodern values tend to emphasize:

• diversity

• equity

• inclusion

• pluralism

• subjectivity

• community

• interconnectedness

• emotional intelligence

• marginalized voices

• critique of power structures

These values bring attention to dimensions that traditional and modern frameworks can overlook.

Who has access?

Who does not?

Whose voice carries authority?

Who is structurally excluded?

What hidden power dynamics are operating?

Within Aikido organizations, these questions can be uncomfortable.

But discomfort does not make them irrelevant.

The shadow of postmodernism appears when critique becomes unable to recognize anything valuable in hierarchy, tradition, excellence, or legitimate authority.

We Carry All Three

The point of this framework is not to divide Aikido practitioners into three tribes.

The more interesting reality is that these value systems often coexist inside the same person.

You may deeply respect your teacher and lineage.

That is a traditional value.

You may also believe you have a right to question leadership.

That is a modern value.

And you may believe an organization should actively address patterns of exclusion.

That reflects postmodern values.

Usually this creates no problem.

Until the values conflict.

Then we discover which ones we prioritize.

Aikido Has A Values Center Of Gravity

Dojos and organizations also develop a kind of values center of gravity.

Some Aikido communities are strongly traditional.

Others are much more modern.

Others consciously foreground inclusion, community, equity, and relational culture.

None of these orientations is automatically wrong.

At their best, each expresses something valuable.

The conflict begins when one worldview assumes that its own values represent the whole truth.

A traditional practitioner may see questioning authority as disloyal.

A modern practitioner may see unquestioned loyalty as submission.

A postmodern practitioner may see both as missing the structural issue entirely.

All three may sincerely believe they are protecting Aikido.

And all three may be seeing only part of the picture.

A Historical Case: Gender Equity In The USAF

In 2019, a coalition of senior women in the United States Aikido Federation organized around concerns about gender equity within senior leadership.

A public disagreement followed.

One side emphasized questions of equity, representation, and the right of members to organize and speak publicly.

Another emphasized loyalty, etiquette, proper channels, respect for hierarchy, and the relational consequences of a public petition.

Seen only at the level of personalities, the dispute can appear messy.

Seen through a developmental lens, the underlying values conflict becomes easier to understand.

The argument was not only about a petition.

It was also about:

Which values should have priority when values collide?

Loyalty And Freedom Of Speech

This is where the companion piece I originally wrote, Prioritizing Our Values In Aikido, fits into the larger discussion.

One of the central tensions was between:

loyalty and respect for teachers

and

freedom to question authority openly.

Both are legitimate values.

A serious student should understand loyalty.

Gratitude matters.

Respect matters.

Relationships matter.

How we speak matters.

But loyalty cannot mean that no difficult issue may ever be raised.

And freedom of speech does not mean that the way we speak is irrelevant.

A mature response has to hold both.

That is harder than simply choosing one side.

Integrating Values Instead Of Choosing A Tribe

The most interesting thing I saw in some of the public statements around the dispute was an attempt to integrate values from all three worldviews.

Traditional values were present through respect for teachers and lineage.

Modern values were present through freedom of assembly, speech, and petition.

Postmodern values were present through advocacy for gender equity and those who felt unable to speak openly.

This is closer to what an Integral approach asks of us.

Not:

Which worldview wins?

But:

What does each worldview see that the others may miss?

And:

Can we include the valid concerns of each without collapsing back into their limitations?

Everybody Has A Piece Of The Truth

One of the principles of Integral Theory that has influenced me deeply is:

Everyone is right.

Not equally right.

Not right about everything.

But every durable worldview contains some piece of truth.

Traditionalism sees the importance of continuity, discipline, and inherited wisdom.

Modernity sees the importance of autonomy, reason, equality, and accountability.

Postmodernism sees the importance of context, power, inclusion, plurality, and interior experience.

The problem begins when a partial truth becomes the whole truth.

Then values harden into ideology.

More Inclusive Does Not Mean “Anything Goes”

Development toward a more inclusive worldview does not mean simply accepting every position.

Inclusion without discernment becomes incoherent.

A more mature perspective should be capable of including and differentiating.

We can preserve what is valuable in tradition without making hierarchy unquestionable.

We can preserve modern freedoms without reducing community to isolated individuals.

We can support equity and diversity without treating all forms of authority or hierarchy as inherently oppressive.

The developmental challenge is integration.

The Aikido Question

Aikido often speaks the language of harmony.

But harmony is easy when everyone already agrees.

The deeper test comes when legitimate values collide.

Can an Aikido community remain connected while disagreement becomes strong?

Can hierarchy tolerate honest feedback?

Can dissent remain respectful?

Can a community address inequity without demonizing everyone associated with an older structure?

Can we speak truth without turning the other person into an enemy?

These are not peripheral questions.

They go directly to what Aikido claims to be about.

Conflict Reveals Our Practice

Conflict has a way of stripping away our preferred self-image.

It is easy to talk about harmony.

Harder when someone challenges something we deeply value.

Then the questions become practical.

Do we contract?

Attack?

Silence?

Dismiss?

Polarize?

Or can we remain present long enough to recognize that another person may be protecting a value that we also understand, even if we prioritize it differently?

This does not guarantee agreement.

It creates the possibility of a more intelligent conflict.

What Are Your Values?

So the question is not merely:

What are Aikido’s values?

There has never been only one answer.

The more revealing question is:

What values do you prioritize when your values conflict?

Respect or truth-telling?

Loyalty or accountability?

Equality or hierarchy?

Tradition or innovation?

Individual freedom or community cohesion?

Inclusion or established standards?

The most mature answer may not be choosing one and rejecting the other.

It may be learning how to hold the tension between them without retreating into a smaller worldview.

That is difficult work.

But perhaps that is exactly where Aikido has something meaningful to offer.

Not by pretending conflict should disappear.

But by helping us become more capable of meeting conflict without losing connection, discernment, or ourselves.