Hero Worship: The Lie That Built the Mat

Martial arts is a hobby for most of us. A service, paid for in cash, time, and trust.

Yet somewhere along the way, we forgot. We let ourselves believe we owed more.

The banners we bow to.

The names we chant.

The black belts we exalt as gods.

These were never acts of strength. They were the quiet rituals of our own betrayal.

We are told to be loyal to the academy, to the instructor, to the lineage.

But where is their loyalty in return?

When abuse surfaces, when predators are unmasked, when lies rot through the floorboards, where is the honor they demand from us?

It vanishes.

Only our obedience remains.

Loyalty is the rope we use to hang ourselves.

Loyalty makes fools of us all.

In a world where you pay monthly for a service, loyalty should be earned every day, not demanded blindly. You are not a soldier in someone else’s war. You are a customer, a student, a human being. Your loyalty belongs first to yourself, to the truth, to the breath that fills your lungs.

The mat was never holy. It is what we make it.

Hero worship poisons it. It lets the unworthy ascend thrones built from our broken backs.

Cult Grappling exists to tear down these false idols.

To kneel only to what is real: pressure, control, endurance, survival.

No more blind loyalty. No more worship.

Only the cold gravity of truth.

Breathe or betray.

Choose.