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RICHARD TSENG

RICHARD TSENG
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My blog has moved.

Find new posts, or get email updates once a week at richardtseng.substack.com.

From Quora: Is There Such a Thing As Ethical Copywriting?

January 16, 2020

If killing is ethically wrong, how come societies celebrate warriors, aka ‘ethical murderers’?

One perspective that the Samurai took was that their killing was in the service of something greater: the protection of their masters and the maintenance of order.

Another was to dedicate their lives to the perfection of their craft, usually the martial arts. According to Zen Buddhism, it doesn’t matter whether you sweep the floor or swing a sword, so long as you work at being the absolute best you can be at it. In doing so, many Samurai achieved a higher spiritual understanding of the world and their place in it. They stopped seeing themselves as indentured thugs and grew to appreciate the importance of being refined, disciplined, and morally upright individuals.

“Once you know the way broadly,” said Musashi. “You see it in all things.”

You can apply the same approach to copywriting. Be the best persuader with words you can be. Learn all about all the aspects of marketing, advertising, PR, and communications you need to know to get there. Once you are an expert, you can refuse the projects to which you are ethically opposed.

Tags philosophy, zen, ethics, society, thoughts
← The key to escaping a burning building? Stick to a direction.On What We Do vs Why we do them →

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A few years ago global martial arts superstar and Wing-Chun icon portrayer, Donnie Yen, was asked whether he could beat Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan in a fight. His response? No.

This despite obvious facts to the contrary: Donnie has trained in modern mixed martial arts, he’s adept at a variety of techniques that were relatively unknown during Bruce or Jackie’s heyday. While Bruce is widely acknowledged to be the father of MMA, he trained during a time when most schools still reserved their best techniques for the dedicated few. A relative unknown until just before his death, Bruce also did not have the resources, the sparring partners, or the access to top experts that Donnie does today.

As for Jackie Chan, the man has always claimed to being a stuntman first. His training lies in Peking Opera show-fighting, and he is relatively unschooled in the defensive grappling necessary for today’s top strikers to carry out their game plans. It’s the main lesson Royce Gracie taught the world at UFC 1, 2 and 4: if you can’t defend a takedown, then you’re unlikely to land anything decisive against your opponent.

So why would Donnie, who has access to all of today’s martial arts schools and the good health necessary to learn, claim that he wouldn’t stand a chance against two martial artists who lacked these advantages?

The answer: face (read on).

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