Tuesday, July 28, 2009

ULTIMATE IDIOCY

Ultimate Fighting is a sign of social degeneration. Regression back to a era when crowds packed themselves into coliseums to be entertained by gang-rapes of exotic women, lions tearing into slaves, and men slashing to the death.

I’m not a fan of boxing. I think the event uncivilized. It appeals to our most base selves, teasing the Natural Man that we really ought to strive to kill. Ultimate Fighting moves beyond that appeal to the basest of selves, speaking to whatever devil might lurk within us. For a group of humans--beings gifted with intelligence, beings with the ability to create art--to crowd together with the intent cheer on physical violence is an indication of the pathetic direction in which we’ve sent ourselves.

The barbarism that’s apparent in encouraging gruesome sport turns my stomach, as--though I support, encourage, and enjoy recreation and leisure time--we human beings really should be being more. We have history to tell us what happens to societies that indulge in violence as sport. We have the knowledge of what kind of a change a single person can instill. Yet we find entertainment in people choosing to reduce themselves to raging beasts.

Appropriately, we punish people who organize dog fighting and the like; yet we permit the same kind of caged combat using humans to be shown and celebrated on television. Not like controlled, staged, choreographed violence in cinema, but graphic, gross, detrimental physical contact. And through watching it, and recording it, and attending it, we show our approval of it.

We are disgusting.

(And when I say we, of course I don’t mean me.)

15 comments:

rabidrunner said...

I often wonder and ponder and contemplate what exactly inspires your blog posts. This one brings about a considerable amount of wonderings and ponderings and contemplations.

Misti said...

Well, if you want to go into allowing Michael Vick to be reinstated in the NFL...blech, blech, blech. That is disgusting.

But yeah, lots of good points you make.

And when you mention ultimate fighting, I think of Monica's millionaire boyfriend on Friends who goes into UF and she has to break up with him for it.

jmakin said...

thank you, thank you! I'll be honest and say that it disturbs me that women let their husbands watch this garbage, thinking that it is important for their man to have "man-tivities" with their man friends. And the fact that these matches are often pay-per-view is also upsetting; paying EXTRA money to watch this garbage! I actually got into a argument with my little brother over this very issue.

p.s. i like the new blue you on the right side of the screen.

Shelby Lou said...

I completely disagree. I am not very good at arguing my point but I will say something.

I love UFC. I think that it is such a show of talent, barbaric as it seems, those men work hard. They train hard and they have a lot of thinking power that goes into each match. They aren't barbarians because they fight. (Some are a bit malicious) Those that are serious about it understand that it is like any other sport. Karate for example shows major skills and technique in the same way, UFC does that too. Ji-jitsu is an ultimate thinking process, if you will. I enjoy watching it because I am a probably a bit satanic?

Ok, so I probably left open tons of holes for people to attack at, but I really don't mind. I just wanted to say SOMETHING. ha I never normally do.

Oh, and your sister is cutting my hair tomorrow. IF I get your sort of same haircut just know, you started the thinking process, but I'm not crazy. K? K.

Ashley Thalman said...

Like Errin says, it makes you embarrassed to be an American.

I once had a massage client who was an Ultimate Fighter. He was also a stock broker and was one of the nicest, most classy people I have ever met or worked with. But....his girlfriend was a stripper and he was okay with that so he was a freaking anomaly

Ashley Thalman said...

Shelby,

Good for you for saying what you think. Your right, people can do what they want with their time and energy but just because people put a lot of work into something- be it artistic, mechanical or technical- it can be completely worthless and base.

Some examples that are coming to mind include; porn, drug trafficking, child exploitation, theft. While I do not put these on the same level as the fights we are talking about I just can't seem to find respect or place for things that don't do one bit of good but provide as Megan calls it, "appeal to the basest of selves, speaking to whatever devil might lurk within us".

Radel said...

I usually love everything I read on your blog, but I'm a bit taken aback by this one. I have to disagree with your judgements of UFC. I quite enjoy watching it with my husband, it is a sport with rules, regulations, standards & talent. I don't think you can put in anywhere near the events from Roman coliseums, where there were no rules, only chaos. Maybe you just don't understand the sport or the discipline involved with it. We tend to judge harshly those things we do not understand. But you have every right to your own opinion, so thanks for sharing it.

tom lindsey said...

A fight breaks out in a post about fighting. Excellent!

Here is a fun article from which I quote:

"In any case, human nature has not changed so much as to have lost its taste for violence. Social psychologists find that at least 80 percent of people have fantasized about killing someone they don't like."

Steven Pinker
TNR Online
03/19/2007

Megan said...

Tom, is that the same as wanting to kill 80% of the people you know at one point or another? No, I suppose not.

Radel and Shelby, thanks for expressing your honest opinion. It's guts I respect, though I'm quite sure I could puncture the support you render. Irregardless (a "word" for Rabid), I'm thrilled that you said what you think. Keep it up.

And jmakin (would you like to be called that or the first name that I know?), one thing you said concerns me: "that women LET their husbands" (emphasis added) watch UFC, etc. I don't think wives should LET their husband do anything--I think consultation is a much better idea. I think you agree, or rather, I hope you do.

Shelby Lou said...

oh my goodness.. "wanting" to kill 80 % of the people..

laughter is happening

cat+tadd=sam said...

I love the new sidebar-Megan. And I love this discussion. You know how Tadd feels about UFC.

Megan said...

Shelby, if you're laughing I can sleep well tonight.

Mission complete.

Jessica said...

megan, you can call me jessica. i was just signed into the other account. "LET" was the only word i could think of this morning during my agitation regarding being at work. i was having a difficult time summoning my brain power, and not having been an english major such as yourself, it requires ALL of my brain power sometimes to think of a good word to describe my thoughts.

"LET" was definitely not the correct word. consultation is a better word, i agree with you (and not just because you hoped i would).

maybe i was distracted by the fact that i was able to use "man-tivities" in a comment?

whitneyingram said...

I have a very legitimate reason for hating UFC. Reason? My 4 year old. If he happens to see it, it turns him into a fighter. I hate it. He sees those meat heads beating the hell out of each other and he wants me to take his shirt off and he want his pants off so he in just his underwear and then he starts trying to beat everyone up.

I could bring up the argument about how this isn't what our bodies are for. God created our bodies to do some pretty incredible things. I am sure he doesn't include this "sport" as one of the incredible things. We need to respect our bodies and UFC IS NOT respecting the body.

Rachel Mae said...

So I've actually never heard of this--what does that say about me? Perhaps the above TV post would explain? But I feel the same way about boxing--as you mention--and to some extent football. It's not that there isn't skill involved in those sports, I just wonder whether that skill couldn't be better applied to something whose aim isn't to hurt another human body.

It reminds me of an old Seinfeld joke about why he finds helmets disturbing--they are an indication of the fact that we humans, rather than giving up our head-cracking activities, have decided to merely put a piece of plastic around our heads and continue on our ways. Of course, when he said it, it was funny. But like most good comedy, he was also making a very valid point.