The transcript below is from the video “Was Bruce Lee on Drugs!? (Bob Baker and Bruce Lee Letters — Reaction)” by Greenville Academy of Martial Arts.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
Hey guys, Sifu Jason here and if you haven’t already heard, let me give you a little bit of backstory about Bruce Lee Letters. We’re calling it Bruce Lee letters, is that Robert Baker, you know, the guy that was in the movie with Bruce in The Chinese Connection playing the Russian and hammering nails and all that stuff. Well, he’s saved rather, cause he’s already deceased. He’s [inaudible] auctioned off a bunch of letters between Bruce and Robert where it is very clear that Bruce wasn’t just a recreational drug user, but that he was actually heavily into using coke, and so is Linda. You know, without belaboring a point, let’s just say that the letter really shows Bruce’s drug issue that has always been rumored as a serious problem.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
And now, my reaction to this, you know, coming from a Christian world, I always like to tell people that one of the things about martial arts is being a great [inaudible] of to all, is that we realise that we are the problem. Now, the natural default setting is that we would be looking outside of us, you know, like if I could just have that, if I could just fix that person, I’d be happy, I’d be okay. And one of the things that help us with growing is taking the accountability to realise that a lot of times what feels good at the moment, it devices of life would steal all of our honour from us. Well, this is what happened to Bruce, isn’t it? I mean, you noticed that Bruce was considered to be a philosopher by a lot of people and he spoke philosophically [inaudible]. One thing that he didn’t really speak about a lot was ethics. And you know, this isn’t meant to bash him, it’s meant to be educational for all of us. Kind of like, if I did a video and say hey guys, you have to keep your hands up or you can get knocked out. I’m doing the same thing here. I don’t think anyone ever wants to live a legacy that damaged the people that we loved, especially our children. And in Bruce Lee’s case it’s Shannon, it’s a lot, so is Linda. This doesn’t look good for his family and this is why we have to exercise self-discipline because these are the things that are gonna catch us.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
Now, if you didn’t read it, Matthew Polly wrote a book on Bruce Lee, a biography, a couple of years ago that detailed quite a bit of his extra marital affairs and his extra curricular activities [inaudible]. So, it’s very clear, it’s undeniable that Bruce was having some serious issues with some self-control. And I think the point that people may say and I’ve seen it a lot of times is what do you expect? It was Hollywood, everybody was doing it, it was fun. No, come on. Everyone knows those things are wrong. Everybody knows that adultery and drug abuse is wrong. He did them anyway because they are very enticing, very easy to fall into. So, when we have these letters out here damaging his legacy and what came out with the adultery affairs damaging his legacy is something that we should all take seriously, because what good is it for us to develop self-defense skills at the level of Bruce Lee and then ruin our personal lives, you know.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
And this does open up a whole kind of world that I don’t really want to get into, that I don’t think would be necessarily educational. My point is that as martial artists, as human beings, we have to be realistic about the enemy we are facing. And the enemy we are facing is always [inaudible] in the mirror. It’s gonna want the easy way out, it’s gonna want to avoid accountability, it’s gonna want [inaudible] and blames everybody else in the room for our problems. And in some cases, it’s like, you know, anyone who knows what it’s like to have to diet. It’s really hard to say no to bad foods. Well, it looks like Bruce had a problem with drugs. So, it’s sad to say, as someone that has worked back in the 90s, when I was a much younger man, I worked in a homeless shelter. I was a counsellor there in New York. And let me tell you, I saw what drugs could do to human beings and how it can steal their dignity.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
And it’s always the case, it always steals our dignity, it promises us freedom, it promises us pleasure and it steals all of our honour from us. So, that’s what happened to Bruce. No, was it excusable? Because it was just the 60s? Of course, not. He was accountable and he should be held accountable. Does it damage his legacy? Of course, it does. You know, in terms of seeing him as sort of a sage so forth, does it invalidate all of the work he did with Jeet Kune Do? No, of course, not. It doesn’t. I mean, that becomes a case where, you know, he [inaudible]. Of course, Bruce’s work stands for what he is. He was an excellent martial artist. So far, he was a tremendous athlete and gifts that he gave us through his movies. And of course, I love Jeet Kune Do and I still teach it.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
However, we do have to take it back and say we shouldn’t analyze the man. We should always be cautious about analyzing anybody, any sifu, any instructor, you know, save it for God himself. Because of that problem we have with, well, lack of self-control. And when you have opportunities oftentimes, like in Bruce’s case, he had opportunities to be the person that he was at that time. He got an opportunity to be cheered on, he was around a group of fast groups as they say. You know Steve McQueen at the time and so forth. And it was easy for him to do things that were a problem.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
So, all of that said, Bob Robert Baker letters that came out [inaudible] unequivocally, without any shadow of a doubt that Bruce Lee was doing drugs and signed drugs indeed as well. And let’s sum this up this way. Shannon Lee recently got into a kind of a snit with Quentin Tarantino you know, when Tarantino was on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Not switching subjects, I think these are two connected things. And doing everything that she can to protect what she believes is her father’s legacy, We just wished that Bruce had been that set fast protecting his own legacy as well because what we are doing now has consequences. What we do now will come up to catch us. Things are going to be found out. So, you know, that’s a point about it, with, you know, real martial arts is that we have to understand that we are in danger not necessarily only of somebody else’s actions, you know, a bad guy or a violent predator. But oftentimes, we’re more likely because of our own weaknesses. So we should be, you know, vigilant about that.
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
And so, unfortunately, those letters just made me sad and I didn’t get any pleasure in making this video because I love Bruce Lee and I love Jeet Kune Do and yet, at the same time, hopefully this is uplifting, this reminds us that we need to stay close to our discipline that makes us better men and women because we acknowledge the fact that we are weak, in all of us, whether it’d be a temper problem, or whether it’d be, yeah, it maybe a loss problem, it may be addiction to porn, or drugs or alcohol, anger, pride, all of those things. We need to address them because they will steal the great things from us in life. And that’s exactly what happened to Bruce. So, I don’t know what Linda and Shannon think seeing that stuff but I mean, it’s just a sad day. So, let’s take responsibility and pray everybody hears this. I mean it, I’m not meaning to say, [inaudible]. He was a human being and I think we should all learn from [inaudible].
Sifu Jason Korol (Greenville Academy of Martial Arts):
So there you have it about the Robert Baker letters with Bruce and hopefully, none of us, by the grace of god, have things like that in our lives, that, again, really bad stuffs like drug abuse and adultery because as you see, it’s just a terrible thing to have to go through, especially for the people that love you. So, you got it, sifu Jason signing off. I know it’s kind of a sobre video but you know, as I guess, it’s a self-defense channel and what could be more pressing for self defense than our own character. And if we let those things go then, you know, we spend a lot of time learning to self defense and we’re still destroyed. That’s kind of a contradiction term right there, okay. So hope you enjoyed the video, it was [inaudible] and we’ll catch you next time.
