"To be trained in karate is something because karate is a vicious thing. If you are any good at it, you can kill somebody with it. It is a vicious way to fight"
About this Quote
Karate gets framed here less as sport than as loaded technology: a skill that comes with an immediate moral shadow. Thomas Foran’s blunt repetition of “vicious” isn’t elegant, but it’s strategic. He’s trying to strip away the gym-poster version of martial arts - discipline, balance, self-improvement - and drag the listener back to the core fact: this is training for harm. The sentence structure does the work. Short clauses, direct verbs (“kill”), no metaphor. It reads like an intervention.
The intent is cautionary, almost prosecutorial. “To be trained…is something” sounds understated until the next line drops the real charge: competence equals lethality. Foran isn’t debating technique; he’s warning about capability. The subtext is about responsibility and the thin line between empowerment and threat. If the body becomes a weapon, the practitioner becomes, socially speaking, a potential incident. That’s why “any good at it” matters: mastery increases not just confidence but consequence.
Contextually, it echoes a recurring cultural panic around martial arts - waves of fascination followed by fear that these practices manufacture violence. The quote leans into that anxiety rather than resisting it, framing karate as inherently “a way to fight,” not a philosophy or art. It’s also a rhetorical move that elevates karate through menace: calling it “vicious” both condemns it and grants it credibility. The audience is invited to respect it precisely because it is dangerous, and to treat training as an ethical burden, not a hobby.
The intent is cautionary, almost prosecutorial. “To be trained…is something” sounds understated until the next line drops the real charge: competence equals lethality. Foran isn’t debating technique; he’s warning about capability. The subtext is about responsibility and the thin line between empowerment and threat. If the body becomes a weapon, the practitioner becomes, socially speaking, a potential incident. That’s why “any good at it” matters: mastery increases not just confidence but consequence.
Contextually, it echoes a recurring cultural panic around martial arts - waves of fascination followed by fear that these practices manufacture violence. The quote leans into that anxiety rather than resisting it, framing karate as inherently “a way to fight,” not a philosophy or art. It’s also a rhetorical move that elevates karate through menace: calling it “vicious” both condemns it and grants it credibility. The audience is invited to respect it precisely because it is dangerous, and to treat training as an ethical burden, not a hobby.
Quote Details
| Topic | Training & Practice |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
