Is ‘The Fancy Mess’ and ‘Organised Despair’ in Martial Arts a Reality or Is it More a Question of Context And Intention? Bruce Lee is often quoted as stating traditional martial arts offer little more than systems of seemingly pointless, inefficient and unproductive movements. He referred to to this as a ‘fancy mess’ in such quotes as: “Instead of facing combat in its suchness, then, most systems of martial art accumulate a ‘fancy mess’ that distorts and cramps their practiti