Bruce Lee was an 'Austrian'

For those of you who don't know, I admire Bruce Lee for his philosophy, as well as his skills. I wrote this little article to be posted at mises.org but Jeff Tucker said that they don't really want to get into metaphor too much, so I am posting it here for the heck of it. No, it's not cited properly since it is an unfinished work, but that's ok. This is just a blog post. Just know that I did not come up with all this information without looking into several books on Bruce Lee and on Austrian philosophy. Enjoy. 

"Bruce Lee Was an 'Austrian'"

Bruce Lee is the most underrated individualist in libertarian circles. I wish to rectify this issue because it was Bruce who first exposed me to the individualist philosophy. Having been in high school at the time and later joining the Army, I can honestly say that if not for his influence, I would not have been attracted to the ideas of liberty and would likely be in the Middle East at this time. While this debt cannot be fully repaid, I can attempt to shine light on what many of his fans are missing out on.
No, Bruce Lee was not an economist; however, he did include many of the same philosophical and even praxeological ideas in his "style" of martial arts which the great Austrian economists use when building economic theory. "Those who think of Bruce Lee simply as a 'karate guy' will learn just how far off base such an assumption is."

"Boards don't hit back" (Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon)

While it may seem self evident that people are not inanimate objects, and actually do possess a will of their own, the Austrian school is the only school of economics that puts emphasis on this point. It is one of the key fundamentals in understanding the basis of economic logic and the Austrian method. And just as the Austrians would criticize other schools of thought for believing it is possible for central planners to map out the economy just right because of all the subjectivity involved, Lee was equally critical of those forms of karate that made a habit seeing people as being boards and bricks. He made this point clear when he said "Now I ask you, did you ever see a brick or a board pick a fight with anybody? This is gimmick stuff. A human being doesn't just stand there and wait to be hit." That was not the limit of Bruce's thinking about this issue. Indeed, he studied philosophy, and wished to include it into his style of Jeet Kune Do. One could take the following statement and replace "martial arts" with "economics", and successfully convince others that it is a quote from Ludwig von Mises himself:
"Every action should have its why and wherefore; and there ought to be a complete and proficient theory to back up the whole concept of Chinese martial arts. I wish to infuse the spirit of philosophy into martial arts, therefore I insist on studying philosophy."
While the Austrian economist would argue "demand and want satisfaction cannot be weighed, as there is no unit of measure to even make an attempt to do so", Bruce Lee parallels this statement in his theory of martial arts in stating "To stand on the outside and try to look inside is futile; whatever was there will go away. This also applies to a nebulous thing described as 'happiness.' To try to identify is like turning on a light to look at darkness. Analyze it, and it is gone."
What does this have to do with martial arts? Lee believed that the best way to teach martial arts to others did not lie in style or form, but rather within the soul of the student. In the only surviving interview, he explains:
"To me, ok, ultimately martial art means honestly expressing yourself. It is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling, and then feel like pretty cool and all that. Or I can show you some phony things, blinded by it though; I can show you some really fancy movement, but to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, that my friend is very hard to do"
Of course, the only possible way to meet this goal of self expression is to do away with style. As the Austrian economist sees laws and regulations restricting the outcome of market activity, Lee saw style as restricting the truth of human self-expression; or as Mises would say, man's teleological contribution to the universe. And as the Austrians would argue that a completely government dominated economy could never work out with the complex division of labor in the industrialist society due to the lack of a pricing mechanism to conduct economic calculation, Bruce Lee once said of martial arts styles "you can't organize truth. That is like putting a pound of water into wrapping paper and trying to organize it."

Using no way as way. Having no limitation as limitation. (Bruce Lee's motto)

So where is the parallel between pushing for a free market economy, and not restricting one-self to a set style of martial arts? Spontaneity. The argument of free market philosophers is that entrepreneurship is spontaneous activity directed at meeting the demands of individuals. If one sees an unmet demand lingering in society, he or she should be free to utilize whatever resources at their disposal to attempt to meet those demands, as long as no aggressive acts against others are committed. That is nothing more than common sense cause and effect; entrepreneurs see a demand that has not been satisfied as an opportunity to make money, and take up the challenge. Lee's motto reflects this exact same attitude in combat. On the topic, Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce's wife for nine years, said that under his philosophy "it's just two people who are being aware of their own movements, who are observing the other person's movements, and being able to fit in with that person's movements, so that there's no set pattern of movements; no well when he does this, then I do this (as a style would teach). It's just a total freedom to react to what the other person does."
The point? Perhaps there is an argument in Bruce Lee's ideas that can communicate to students of Austrian economics to take that philosophy beyond the objective level of the optimum organization of society, and apply it to their personal lives. We do not believe in any form of government telling everyone how to run their business, or where and when we can invest, or anything else beyond respecting the person and property of other. The next logical step is to apply such philosophy to more personal aspects of life. Rather than crystallizing the style of others, explore yourself. If it is individual liberation we seek, we can learn a lot from Bruce's example. He argued that while learning the fundamentals of martial arts is important, just be yourself. "The main thing is teaching a man to do his thing, just being himself. The individual is more important than style. If a person is awkward he should not try to be agile. I'm against trying to impose a style on a man. This is an art, an expression of man's own self."