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Comparisons are odious

People often ask me to compare Tai Chi vs. Yi Quan. Not that I'm the guy to ask. There are much better experts out there, find one of the big master teachers, why don't you, and ask them. I'm a nobody in this field.

Yet people do ask me. So this post is my final answer.

First, from the high concept level, let me emphasize: They are basically the same thing. They have the same goal, which is complete permeation of the body with internal energy that is instantly moblizable for combative application. There's your vision statement thing, right there. So don't get on my back about high level stuff.

Now, from the implementation point of view, there are differences. But again let me caveat that these differences in the arts will often or largely be washed out by the diffferences in individual practitioners. People like different stuff, people have different needs, goals, preferences, and prejudices... all that kind of thing will largely wash out any theoretical advantage that one set of practices may appear to have over another. So again, stay off my back about it.

So, what is it? Well, they really are similar. Problem is that there are many sub-varieties of each art. In some cases, the differences between two sub-types of the same art can be greater than the differences between that art and a different art. So I'll narrow it down to comparing ZMQ37 Tai Chi to the Yao Brother's version of Yiquan. I learned that in a total of 4 months of 7 days / 7 hours-per-day work at the ZongXun WuGuan in Beijing under Yao Chengguang, arguably in some sense the current generation leader of YiQuan overall (yeah I know you are gonna get all in my shit about that statement, but guess what I don't care much one way or the other. It's merely a point of orientation for this post).

They really are very similar. Both are primarily intended to develop the internal energy for combative application. Both use a reasonably small set of postures and movements for that purpose. Both emphasize holding postures for longer or shorter durations. Both have a set of partner drills called push hands (tui shou). Both claim to emphasize mind training and physical relaxation as the basis of the work.

In practice though, really down on the ground, or down in the dirt, there are very important differences. Main thing is the degree of relaxation. When you learn the Yi Quan static holding or shi li (slight movement) holding, Yi Quan coaches will indeed emphasize relaxation very much. So you wouldn't think that would be an issue. But it is. Simply, the structure of the Yi Quan postures leads to more unconcious tension, especially in the upper body, than with the ZMQ37 equivalent work. I saw so many examples of this that I regard it as inarguable. But check it out for yourself, don't believe me. Since it is mostly unconcious tension that is engendered, if you ask any YQ practitioner about, they will strenuously (tensely?) deny the point and forcefully argue how relaxed they are. But then do some push hands with them - you'll detect it instantly. Like touching a wall.

In fact, their entire approach to push hands actually explicitly relies on giving tension to your partner to work with. I do understand their reasonong for this, so I won't go deeply into it here, but the fact remains that this is tension, it leads to long term unconcious tension, which will no matter what anybody says hinder the internal development.

Now you may say: well ok they are more tense but you NEED that tension for "real world" applications and sparring. This isn't a Tai Chi girly-man tea party, this is real he-men doing real shit like sparring ... oooooh! Shiver~! Fuck it. That's not a very good answer in terms of this post because I am comparing the arts in their long term effects and results here. Yes, it's true that if you match up, all else equal, a one-year ZMQ guy against a 1-year Yi Quan guy then sure - the YQ guy will quickly punch out the ZMQ guy, and lights out.

But that's not a final answer, because if you really want to learn how to hit somebody fast, hard, and accurate, in less than one year just do 6 months of Western Boxing (including sparring) and you'll punch out the equivalent YQ guy easy. So that kind of comparison is meaningless.

As for training rigor, it's odd that while most people are very impressed when I say that in Beijing I used to stand every morning for one hour in "combat post" right side, then immediately switch for another hour of "combat post" left side, fact is that wasn't so hard. Strangely, it is far more rigorous and difficult to hold the ZMQ postures for 10 minutes than to hold YQ for an hour. And also more internally productive.

Another thing is the very much sportive atmosphere of YQ, at least as done at ZXWG in Beijing. They have a tense, competitive mindset. Of course that is cloaked by all kinds of "health" talk and so on, but basically they have a gamey, competitive, young man's mindset. Which is good in a way, I respect practical athletics. But again, boxing is the same thing but more honestly presented. This kind of mindset just adds yet more unconcious tension to the average student.

Long term, in my opinion, despite the considerable similarities in goals and even methods, the ZMQ method due to its much superior technical design in support of relaxation training and elimination of unconcious tension (and methods for detecting and exploiting unconscious tension in others), has it all over the YQ. Not to say there are not great fighters and masters coming out of YQ of course there are. This is just my peronsal stupid dumbass opinion: if you want to aim for the highest levels, ZMQ is superior.

Don't quibble with me on this writeup. If you don't like the way I've done it, do it yourself.

Rain in Hell

For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely.

- Enya

* * *

I remember reading in Krishnamurthi's published journal how, when he was staying in Ojai, he would lie in bed for hours every morning, never really wanted to get up at all because his super-activated ki field was so totally and addictively immersive.

Of course now I understand. The charge is so huge and it holds you as though you are in mid-air, surrounded by hydroelectric dynamo's at full bore, yet internally like the purest 'nip (that would be heroin to you humans) permeating every cell. Not that I'm any kind of a big freaking deal like Krishnamurthi was (obviously!) I'm just saying I can relate, is all.

Haha! What a trip. Ridiculous, in a way. Makes you wonder, why bother with a human body at all? Just living in that energy field would be fine. Bodies are so much trouble and what's worse they cause so much trouble. Don't take my word for it, Zhuang Zi already pointed this out quite some time ago.

And it's silly because in the human world, ONLY MONEY IS REAL. Not this kind of bullshit. Yet it does happen, so I can relate. Fortunately, except for this vague wish to never get up again, once you are up it doesn't interfere in any way with all the normal operational human bullshit you have to go through to get to the other side of each day. To the contrary actually, it makes you more effective with all the physicalized crap, if you know how to use it. But that's another dog for another day.

Anyway as long as I have a body, I feel compelled or impelled to maintain it. Through lots of trial and error I have kind of figured it out: this particular body "needs" to do Ashtanga yoga Primary Series about 6 mornings per week, and also a set of 4 or 5 3-minute full-bore jump rope rounds every day. That's the minimum to keep it tuned up. Otherwise it doesn't feel right. Gets feeling a little cramped, slobby... gimmie a word for it.

But I surely understand why Yang Cheng Fu and some others got all fat and out of shape, because frankly the physical stuff, while sometimes kind of fun when you get into it, simply does not begin to compare to the energy states which you can access instantly any time, but best of all when you ease into the ZMQ series. You feel like, why do anything else with this body? (Yeah I know, don't bother with any sarcastic comments, I know there are other things to do with a body. It's just a feeling, is all.)

Well anyway. I'm too chickenshit to drop the physical, so I guess I'll just keep tuning it as above, until it breaks down on its own, or until it gets shot to shit by some banger or something. Castaneda (hoaxster but great writer) said the final enemy of the man of power, and the only one that cannot be defeated, is old age. I believe him. As far as the physical body goes, that's really true.

Home on the Range

Somebody asked if I have a lot of Tai Chi students. I have some private students. We work catch-as-catch-can. One or two dozen, depending how/when you count noses. But not many, for two reasons, first, I travel a lot, back and forth... here and there... round about. That makes establishing any kind of regular program difficult. It actually shouldn't really be an issue. In old China, the teacher would show you one or two new things, then you or he would go away for a while, even months, even years, and then meet up again and try to work forward. But modern people expect a fixed location, fixed schedule, nice facility, convenient parking, ... *pant*. So much trouble.

Second, thing is that the method we practice (a particular approach to training the ZMQ37 system) is just too hard for most people. I don't mean it's hard to understand what to do. As I've said, this style is straightforward, you don't need to be CAT scanned or electrotomyographied to get going on it. It's simple and yet it's really rigorous. Hard to do. Lots of experienced martial artists come to me, we push in the first session and they get real interested, but when I lead them through even a baby version of the actual training, they mostly back off quickly enough. Because it takes really serious physical and mental discipline to make it through the protracted beginning period of physical torture and boredom. (Hmm, I'm not exactly much of a marketer either am I, ahaha)

For example, it's much harder to do 10 minutes of correct ZMQ style standing/holding of any single given stance than it is to do an hour or more of holding a single (also correctly held) YQ pose (basic health, basic combat, or any other variant from the YQ inventory). Way harder.

I do try to conduct one charity benefit (all tuition fee direct to the designated charity) once a year or so... though I think I skipped this year. Last one I did was a benefit for the Burmese typhoon relief thing, raised a nice chunk of change for that. I just do those for fun. In those, I guarantee each attendee gets at least 10 mins of free push hands work with me (no patterned stuff as you usually get stuck with in Push Hands seminars). But it's a hard style to teach in seminars in a way, it is both too much (37 linked postures) for a single day or weekend, yet at the same time, too little (5 simple principles, and one posture to work them is really all you actually need). Doesn't quite fit people's expectations. It's quirky. I'm quirky too. This is never gonna be Harry Potter or Bikram Yoga or Michael Jackson level of public interest.

One interesting point raised by this topic is whether any kind of Tai Chi practice (or yoga for that matter) is really too bourgeois ? I mean, can a homeless person really get into this? Isn't it just for boring, settled people? Maybe a bit of a hothouse flower in that way. Though certainly in ancient China there were lots of wandering crazy Taoist scoundrels at high levels of reported mastery. I wonder if a guy like my homeless friend in Tokyo could get into this? Maybe next time I see him, I will bring it up.

Inside Out

Among Tai Chi enthusiasts, there are your pure Mecha's (Mechanicals), who have mentally reduced the art and themselves to the endlessly fascinating minutiae of physiology, anatomy, fascia, tendons, ligaments, joints, bones, muscles, angular torque, rotational spin, yaw, heel, pitch, and roll. They are a lost cause.

Then you have your Quasi Mecha's. These are various teachers and experts who kinda sorta wanna believe in qi/ki type of higher energies, yet can't really let go of the utter fascination and enchantment of all the above anatomy, meat, and Mecha structure. So to these types, who want to have it both ways, you got to get yerself all perfectly aligned, and structurally regimented to just the exact nth degree, and then and only then, the higher energies will manifest. In this view these energies are very shy beasties, like yeti's or unicorns, that can only be lured out using rare and exotic inducements.

Wrong! Remember what 孔子 once wrote:

子曰：「道不遠人。人之為道而遠人，不可以為道。」

It means that the Way is not far from you, but when you travel far to get at it, that isn't the true Way.

So, see, don't overdo it. These Quasi-Mecha's are taking the finger for the moon. You do need a few simple postural basics, to get started. Just some common sense really, no MRI scan required.

But after that is when the real fun begins. Because the true situation is exactly the opposite of what the Quasi-Mecha's assume. That is, instead of needing to create the perfect alignment within your body to attract the higher energy, the higher energy itself sculpts your body to its requirements! The alignment doesn't create the energy - the energy creates the alignment. Weird, huh.

But if you approach it ass backwards, you risk stifling the free field of play the energy needs to get started. You'll cramp it off and it will take twice as long, or never.

Devil vs Deep Blue Sea

 I heard an interview on NPR with a Transhuman guy. He was talking about how (near) future-people will have "millions and billions" of nano-machines injected into their brains, that will allow total integration of their neural processing with wireless networks, enabling full undetectably seamless immersion into completely virtual worlds, or virtual overlay of net data onto raw sensory input, not to mention complete recording, storage and on-demand playback in full experiential immersion of any previously lived experience, and swaps of such full-sense (indistinguishable on playback from immediate experiential reality) with any other person(s) or splicing with other people's backup tracks to make new medleys, and, it goes without saying, realization of the old sci-fi cliche of uploading your brain's entire neuronal map (which will constitute a clone of your consciousness according to this guy) into a computer for immortal storage, playback, manipulation, re-combination, and unlimited download into any number of synthetic host bodies, such as bodies made of pressurized carbon (diamond) for living on planet Mercury, or bodies with gills and wings, or distributed download into multiple bodies activated in unison via a corporatized hive mind, with multiple parallel consciousness tracks, etc.

All pretty run-of-the-mill transhuman stuff. Where it got more interesting is when the guy tried to motivate and justify it all, basically groping towards an answer to the implicit (unasked, of course, interviewers are idiots) question: what is the point of all the above?

He fumbled toward an answer to his own question (this is a rough paraphrase):

"The point is not exactly to become immortal, but to live long enough to understand the illusory nature of personal consciousness and individual identity... having understood that, I might be ready, after a few centuries of [the above types of] experience, to move on or even be extinguished... this is the point made by Buddhism, that all experience and individual identity is illusory..."

So that's good as far as it goes. The guy dimly understands that Buddhism already provides the lesson he seeks. But though I'm not a Buddhist, I do admire the way they serve up the point on the cheap. Because the civilization that can develop and support the tech infrastructure to do what this guy wants done (as described above) must by definition ravage and rape and scourge (what's left of) the biosphere. The interviewee doesn't mind paying that price, but to me it isn't exactly a cost-effective proposition. I mean, given that he already knows the end-point... (the final understanding of all identity and experience as arbitrary and illusory). If you know which horse will win, why run the race?

(Of course, some people will claim that as we become virtualized, we'll actually end up shrinking the bootprint we leave on Mother Nature's ass, because we'll all be living most of our lives as cybernauts, but we know that's a silly dodge. For example, the paperless offices (since the computer was invented) have used more paper than the entire human race used up til that point, probably times 10. And look at all the toxic ewaste, and on and on.)

What he doesn't see or doesn't want to see is that the actual motivation for development of all that technology is not to provide masturbatory mind games for post-adolescent sci-fi geeks, it is a power play by the Inner Party pure and simple. They are psychopaths. Once they have your soul in a bottle and can jack straight into your brain, they can play with it, put screws to you that would embarrass Torquemada himself. But at this stage, they need useful idiots like this interviewee to do the front-running for them, be their PR flaks.

Not that Nature in the raw is any fun Task Mistress either. You long-term readers already know Tabby Cat's acronym for the (majority) human perception of life in the wild:  Monotonous, Uncomfortable, and Dangerous (MUD). We couldn't take that so we built all this stuff to encage ourselves, and he's just pushing that to its absurd endpoint.

So it seems be a Scylla and Charybdis thing.

Not quite

I guess I don't write clearly. Not that I care much either way. But some kind of misunderstanding has arisen, reflected in some recent emails and comments. I am not posing a dichotomy between structured Tai Chi vs some kind of airy-fairy roll-your-own spirit Tai Chi. That's a false dichotomy of the type humans love.

I am constrasting the current obsession with physical structure as the be all end all of Tai Chi practice. That is a mistaken view. But the energetic real Tai Chi is a fully specific, definite mode of practice. Quite rigorous in fact, it is a crucible. I am only saying that the endless attempt to reduce Tai Chi to this or that joint section, or tissue type, or large or small muscles or some kind of structural torque is all totally and pitifully misguided, and all based on the same fundamental mistaken mechanical assumption.

If you want airy fairy roll your own Tai Chi, go have some fun with Al Huang's book from the 70's, Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain. But you won't find anything like that here.

Totally Schizoid

Now I'm confused. I mean, even more confused that I normally would seem to be.

Phase 1: Before coming to Detroit this weekend, I had read all about the Michigan economy cratering and what a wasteland it all is.

Phase 2: I got here expecting economic and social devastation. Yet certainly the burbs and even the downtown were far more stable and prosperous-looking than I could have imagined. Yes, the outer within-city limits as I wrote before look like the photos of 1945 Berlin. I kind of expected that. And yes it's a ghetto scene. But in terms of the social vibe, it didn't strike me as noticably worse than lots of other major USA cities. So I thought OK, Detroit/MI economy isn't quite that bad yet. And I kept seeing all the late model cars, the flush looking malls and huge chain stores and so on, in all the outer towns beyond Detroit per se.

Phase 3: So I asked some locals about the whole question, what's the real scoop on the Michigan economic scene on the ground, checking in with long-distance students of my teacher who live here. They told me all kinds of economic horror stories, everybody is out of work, the young people are all leaving, the tax base is crumbling, the technology brain drain is devastating, it's all coming tumbling down around their ears. Yikes, I thought, ok things are really bad. I've been taken in by a shallow facade!

Phase 4: Needing to eat somewhere, I found a California Pizza Kitchen. It was located in an unbelievably upscale mall in Troy MI which is outside of Detroit. This place was like Versailles. There's nothing remotely to compare with it in the Seattle region for sure, which is normally thought to be a fairly wealthy region overall. And then the kicker: the ENTIRE multi-square-miles (seeming) parking lot was COMPLETELY jammed, every spot taken, with further dozens of cars circling sharkishly! Every spot filled with a gleamy-clean late model vehicle! What??! The mall (filled with useless upscale stores) was absolutely packed (as was the CPK outlet in there). Now, I'm not saying this kind of (superficial?) prosperity does the Detroit underclass any good. It seems to be practically defined in deliberate opposition to that. Yet still... for a state on its last economic legs... something is weird here.

So I don't know what to think. I'm going to give up all attempt at felinic economics. Obviously I don't have a clue, I'm just getting whipsawed between dueling impressionistic experiences. Probably somewhere out there is a small set of numbers that tells the entire story - Past, Present, Future. But I don't care. Those numbers are probably lying too.

Thing about Michigan, it's the same with the entire Northern Hemisphere - these places have populations well beyond what the local natural food system could possibly support (not to mention local self-sufficient provision of the other life basics). Everywhere is the same. So basically, the prognosis for Michigan is the same as for the USA, indeed possibly for the entire Northern Hemisphere as a whole - until the day that we can no longer buy, barter, beg, borrow, steal, or loot the oil, things will somehow struggle onward.

What's up doc

I crafted a big post on the Detroit Tai Chi seminar with my teacher. It was a blast. I wrote all kinds of amazing anecdotes, profound demonstrations and teaching points he gave out. He actually stepped through the Tai Chi classic writings, line by line. One of the very few times he's ever done that. Not that physical practice time suffered any for that. In short, another watershed event....

Like I said, I wrote a big elaborate blow-by-blow. But then, I realized... why? No point. Those who've worked with my teacher know that score already. And those of other schools, teachers, styles, approaches and backgrounds are fully persuaded, without need of further evidence, that I'm an ignorant, biased, overly opinionated asshole, so why rub their nose in that again?

In short, the words of Alexander Pope drifted unbidden through my mind:

'Tis with our judgments

as our watches, 

None go just alike,

yet each believes his own.

Now, if you are having trouble with the archaic English literary style there (as one might, for example, in reading the stilted ancient Chinese of the Tai Chi classic writings) then let me translate into 21st century vernacular the gist of Alexander's point as it relates to the detailed post I had written up:

fuck it.

Naila

Who knows why
Someday we all must die
We're all homeless boys and girls
And we are never heard
It's such a lonely, lonely world

- Todd Rundgren

* * *

I have seen two fortune tellers in my life. Both were women. Psychic Number One, the first I ever saw, was Naila, from Hungary or some such place but living in LA. She was a total babe. I went from one of the zillions of energy healing training courses I've done, and she was assisting the course as some kind of TA. This was a fair number of years ago. So the main instructor told the whole class "By the way, Naila is a really gifted psychic. Check her out at the lunch break or after the evening session, any time she can schedule you."

Normally I don't see psychics. I figure they are all fake like Whoopie Goldberg's character in Ghost, that's my idea of a professional psychic/medium type. But Naila... I don't know. Her aura or her vibe or just her gorgeous sexy looks got to me. Call me shallow. I scheduled a session. Mind  you she doesn't know me from Adam, I'm just another putz in the healing class.

So I go to her room (we were all staying in the same big hotel for the training week) and the instant I walk in the door, she commands (in her cute sexy Hungarian accent):

"You do not say anything from this moment on until I tell you that you may talk. You go sit on the sofa there. Sit quietly. If you say anything before I allow the session is over and you leave immediately, and I will not see you again. You may get your pen and notebook ready to take notes if you wish. Now be quiet."

OK! Jawohl or whatever. I was impressed. I sat where indicated, and took in the total re-do she had made of this bland hotel room, with Tibetan hangings and Thai incense wafting in nearly visible vapors and Sanskrit chanting softly in the background... wow! Just like a movie psychic!  She took a separate chair in front of me. She meditated with her eyes shut for about 10 minutes (a really long time in that situation) and then she spoke ... without asking me anything whatsoever, she spoke.

And what she said I am not gonna tell. Because though some of it sounded a bit nutty at the time, it has over the years turned out to be like 90% true already, spookily, freakily true. She also saw my past, she saw ME, she read me like a book and flatly spoke out every secret I ever had ... it was truly scary. How the fuck did she do that?? You know the song "Killing Me Softly" well, it was that, for real. She looked right through me with her eyes closed. So no fricking way am I  going to write what she said. Too deep and dark. Just one quick example: before I ever met Vlad or heard of Systema, or had any thought of writing anything, nor did I have anything to write even if I did, she told me (with no indication that I practiced martial arts, I don't exactly look like Mike Tyson. I haven't even got any tats.) "You will write a popular book on martial arts ... " *cue Twilight Zone*

But one interesting side point she made, which hasn't quite come true yet because I guess it wasn't exactly a prediction, was her comment: "You have committed suicide in a number of your lives. The legion of guardian spirits who for some reason are taking a great interest in you, many more flocking around you than I have ever seen on anybody before - they have this tension among them, they discuss it among themselves - this time, will he, won't he...?"

(She also said "You didn't really believe in me, you think seeing a psychic is beneath you, but you thought I was cute so to kill time you made this appointment." But she didn't need to be psychic to know  that, so I don't think I was billed for that item... ahahaha!)

Anyway, that was Naila.

The 2nd (and last) psychic I saw was a few years later. A store-front thing that caught my eye for some reason. I think her name was Madam Lucinda or something. She had a big sign in her window (hanging above the large crystal ball display)

"PAST PRESENT FUTURE - MADAME LUCINDA SEES ALL".

How could I resist? So I walk in, expecting that she'll do like Naila... out comes a surly but beautiful teenage girl! Huh? Madame Lucinda...? No, it's her daughter, who names a big initial consultation fee, which I pay and "Madam Lucinda will be right with you. The Madam makes her entrance, swathed in all kinds of robes and jewelry and stuff. OK, that's close enough to Naila's style I guess... but then:

Hello. What is your name?

[Tabby Cat.]

OK, Tabby, I do two kinds of consultations, Simple and Deep. The Deep consultation is done with the Tarot Cards. It will cost (names a very large fee). I would recommend in your case, the Cards...

[OK.] (Tabby pays up)

Madam Lucinda spreads the Tarots cards and turns them all over, with lots of mumbling, um's and ah's. She hardly looks at them again for the rest of the session.

Where do you live?

[I name my state of residence]

What do you do for a living?

[Do I really need to tell all this? What about, like ... I mean...  "past, present, future"...?]

Yes, yes of course, but it will be a much deeper reading if we can connect on a spiritual level first, let me tune my vibrations down to your frequency. What kind of work do you do?

[High tech]

Ah yes, a professional. I could tell right away. Do you have a girlfriend? Wife? Relationship?

[Tabby briefly and irritably replies with the bare facts]

Yes, yes I can see it all now. You are an intelligent person, yet you are seeking for further answers. Well here is the thing, you, being so smart, have attracted the attention of a Dark Sorceror, who wishes you ill. The only way to remove this shadow is to let me cast him off you. That will require a second consultation at my standard rate of 600 dollars. I strongly suggest you do this or you may die within a year or so.

(getting up from the table) [Thanks but I'll take my chances.]

Mind you this, was several years ago, and I'm still kicking.

And I have never been back to any fortune teller since.

Gato Blanco

Having the better part of a free day, your feline reporter always tries to bring back the meat - serious journalism, that you can believe and respect. You know the hallmarks of the Tabby Cat Gamespace newsource: sober, unembellished...

"All the News That's Fit to 'Nip!"

So I took a field trip into Detroit. Four hours worth, by car and foot. I covered everything.

I told my faithful GPS thingie: "Take me high!" (and it steered me up to the ostentatious GM headquarters building that towers over the city like the castle keep of a feudal lord)...

I told my GPSster: Ride me low! (and it dragged me through acre after acre, whole square-mile wide districts, that look like Berlin, May 1945).

Then it took me past some glitzy monster called the Greektown Casino... wove through all kinds of Detroit Medical installations and institutions, and Wayne State U ... then peaked by circling me round the Detroit Tigers baseball stadium (obviously the high point of the tour as it is adorned with literally a hundred or more giant stone FELINE sculptures, showing us in just the ferociously heroic poses we love to assume. A veritable Church of Felinology!)

 And all I can say about Detroit is, yeah, it's bad but it's not really that bad. That said I don't have to live there (in this current incarnation I mean). So maybe it is really that bad. But what I mean is, I expected worse.

There seem to be three rings: Inner ring of corporate domination, a bland gleamy-clean Brave New World type of gate-controlled soulless vibe. Mid-ring of totally decaying bombed out devastation, yet curiously innocuous in terms of the human vibe. Outer suburban ring of apparently quite wealthy districts.

It's true that within city limits, many many whole blocks are completely falling apart. But they are totally abandoned, I mean, everybody has moved out of those buildings, so they're just empty, no sense of live menace.  I've felt a lot more dangerous vibes walking around crackmart districts in many other cities across the USA. Really quite ho-hum. There I was, a cracker, un gato blanco, with Florida plates, hell I was driving a car in Crip colors fer Crissake, but nothing. Not a single bullet hole through my side doors... I was never even called honky.

Basically, Michigan will be all right. The outlying districts beyond Detroit actually seem quite wealthy, with lots of huge shopping centers anchored by Macys and Neiman Marcus malls and such. And even near downtown,  there seemed to be lots of nice-enough housing areas and new-looking townhouses just outside downtown, with OK-looking schools and orderly crossing guards for the elementary schoolkids and all that, it's really more or less livable as far as I can tell. But what do I know?

I think the only thing that will take Michigan down is if/when Peak Oil takes the entire country down.