Meaning:
Among incompetents, even mediocrity passes for brilliance
Background:
The first known reference to this proverb is in Why Come Ye Nat to Courte?, a
poem by Englishman John Skelton, published around 1522. The poem is one of a
number in which he takes Cardinal Wolsey to task, with pithy lines such as
these:
He is so ambicyous
So shamles, and so vicious
And so supersticyous
And so moche oblivious...
Some years before, Skelton had been appointed tutor to the future Henry VIII and
was on good terms with Thomas Wolsey, but he ended up in prison later in his
life, most likely having offended the, by then, very powerful Cardinal Wolsey.
Not long after, Skelton retired from court and became rector of Diss, a town in
the East of England, well away from the intrigue of the Tudor court.
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This truism is often cited in the BJJ community. I read it in Rickson's book(I
think) and heard it in podcasts where martial artists reminiscing the pre-UFC
days. [Rorion Gracie started UFC in 1993 to market his family-style jiu-jitsu.]
The idea is that as most people don't know ground fighting (wrestlers pin but
don't submit) and overrate their ability to defend themselves, someone with
basic BJJ skills could easily dominate. When his boy asked if there was magic in
the world, Jocko Willink, the former Seal commando of the Battle of Ramadi (Iraq)
fame, answered in three syllables: "Jiu-jitsu."
