Harmony, Control, Assault

I've just found a cartoon in The Times that immediately reminded me of the harmony-control problem I think a lot about:

However, this time the topic is not that of harmony vs. control but necessary control vs excessive control. Just like excessive control leads to pushing people down to the ground by police, the same excessive control can damage people in aikido trainings. So control is good, but there should be a balance there. Too little control leads to ineffectiveness (both in technique and policing), too much of it leads to unnecessary pain, frustration and damage.

In addition to the above aspect, we should be strong enough mentally to resist the pressure of the environment and the effect that comes from being in a large group of people. As social psychology suggests, these can give you the feeling of being strong, supported and not (so) responsible even if you do bad things (like being in a group of police officers and 'terrorise' others who do not seem to insult you directly). So we should be able to control ourselves as well. This kind of control should also be balanced. Because if we are out of control (i.e. we do not regulate our behaviour enough) then we do do things like the police at the G20 protests, and we hurt others in training because 'we can' or because 'we can show them'. If the control is too much on ourselves then we don't allow ourself to do anything and we make our own lives miserable and we will have a lot of regret later (this latter one I know from personal experience). In addition to that, too much self-control restricts relaxed movements and takes away flexibility which would really be needed in aikido practice.