The Sad Appeal of the Modern Gladiator

Sometimes, during the rare occasions when I am reading about sports online, videos of UFC fights or other MMA or boxing matches appear on the screen.  These short videos typically depict a particularly vicious set of punches or kicks.  One of the fighters is being pummeled over and over with absolutely no mercy or relief. The videos are clearly intended to appeal to the type of men who are attracted to such brutality.  I have to look away.

I am no prude, nor am I averse to physical challenges.  I wrestled and played soccer throughout my life and could hold my own in rough play.  But I find it sickening to watch human beings battering one another with the sole purpose of proving physical dominance and causing pain or injury.

Many men are fascinated by combat sports, just as they are fascinated by the exploits of SEALs or other military superstars.  Football, hockey and a few other non—combat sports also feature plenty of brutality, which is a large part of their allure. Attempts to limit particularly violent or dangerous hits in football or to eliminate fights in hockey have been stymied by the public’s bloodlust for these aspects of the sports.

Why are many men (and it is primarily men - women seem much less interested) so bewitched by this kind of savagery?  Are we biologically programmed to seek and celebrate violence?  Is this a kind of evolutionary attribute that was ‘naturally selected’ to allow us to survive and prosper in a violent world?

After all, nature is violent.  Predator and prey – one animal is another’s meal and means of survival.  The beautiful world around us appears to be an idyllic natural setting but is actually a deadly war zone with every creature on full alert either seeking out something to kill or hoping to elude death for another day. 

Watching a nature program can be just as unsettling as viewing an MMA fight.  I find it very unpleasant to see one animal attacking, killing and then devouring another.  But that is the way life remains balanced in the natural world.  No lions are lying down with the lambs yet, and if they did it would require a rather dramatic shift in the eating habits of all the earth’s creatures.  Maybe we need to initiate a worldwide carnivore to herbivore animal counseling and conversion effort?

 

But are human beings destined to remain mired in the same ‘survival of the fittest’ primordial bog that the rest of nature inhabits?  Isn’t the whole history of human civilization one of a gradual rejection of our violent and warlike traits and a cultivation of new, cooperative attributes – technology and invention, collaboration, artistic expression, sport, industry, spirituality, humor, humility?

During the Roman Empire the people flocked to see men fight to the death in gladiatorial combat.  The Romans celebrated warfare and the ability to kill because their empire was built on conquest, subjugation and slavery.

Our modern gladiators are our football and hockey players, UFC fighters and boxers.  There are elements of sport and skill in their combat that allow us to pretend that we are not watching with only a morbid interest in the violence, but the gleeful way we celebrate the bone-crunching hit in football or the gloves-off pugilism in hockey belies this self-delusion.  There is no illusion at ringside for the UFC or boxing matches.  They are pure gladiators and the spectators are the bloodthirsty Roman mob.

One might argue that this type of combat sport allows men to satisfy their crueler instincts in a controlled, less harmful environment and thus hopefully avoid the lust for actual warfare and combat that has characterized so much of our history.  And of course, there will always be the need for combat-trained people with a willingness to employ ferocity and rage to fight evildoers.  But hopefully ever fewer men should be needed in this type of role.

Is our fascination with violence, as evidenced by much of our entertainment and game industry, an indication that we are by nature violent creatures and that any attempt to wean us from this diet of savagery is doomed to failure?  Our anger and volatility, the emotional allies to violence, are clearly visible in our daily lives – the road rage, the bar fights, the domestic violence.  Is our penchant for violence simply another of the contradictory and inscrutable aspects of human nature that will never be fully understood or controlled?

I choose to believe that we are malleable machines with a noble spirit that can be cultivated to reign over our intemperate components.  We may not be able to completely subdue those parts of us that hearken to brutality, and perhaps we need a certain level of unpredictable emotion and passion to make life interesting, but I also believe that we are doing ourselves no favor by delivering an endless stream of cruelty and violence in our movies, games and sports.