Recently a TKD instructor that rents mat time from our dojo failed a student at a rank test; the student had just plain stopped, unable or unwilling to go on. One take on that is that the instructor was perhaps in a sense almost trying to make the student give up, having him run suicides for faster and faster times every time another student performed better than him in a given technique or form sparring. That perspective would point out that the student certainly wasn't going to get any faster or better as he was more and more physically worn out, and that such a purely physical aspect shouldn't have that much of a place in a rank test. Another take on the issue is that the student hopefully walked away from the test with the realization in mind that maybe he really wasn't ready for it at that point, but that he will be able to become ready for it in the future. The test of his conditioning, according to this perspective, might not be so central to testing, but should nonetheless be a vital and important part of the student's general training. From this side of the issue, the only really lamentable part is that there was no dialogue between the student and teacher after the test.

interesting verb: cathect, to inject with libidinal energy

though Xuemei and I are quite pleased with our Chef Tony knives, these probably top them, at least aesthetically

"All satire...necessarily carries a utopian frame of reference within itself; all utopias, no matter how serene or disembodied, are driven secretly by the satirist's rage at a fallen reality."