I figured it was about time I surfaced from editing, and a minor cold that has clouded my ability to think for the last couple of weeks. Possibility two is that I have a hidden allergy I do not know of, not sure which. Maybe I am missing some vitamin/mineral from my diet, which would be possibility three. Whatever it was, it certainly clouded my thinking ability. A few days ago I could not remember the word for antioxidant to save my life, and had to look it up on Google by using its definition. Anyone who knows my drinking habits personally would understand the severity of the mental fog I have been in (*hint* I consume more orange juice than water and drink lemon juice in shot glasses. I should know what an antioxidant is). My updates will be more frequent than they have been recently.
The manuscript to the book is underway (publishing company established, ISBN’s purchased, and permissions sent out). I also have a few beta-readers out there, to whom I would like to give thanks again for being guinea pigs. Moving on to today’s topic, I will start with what happened last night.
Yesterday I made myself watch an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight (UFC) for the first time, it was the Fabricio Werdum vs. Travis Browne match and the matches immediately before it. It did not dawn on me there would be so much bloodshed, mostly nosebleeds I assumed, but still it was much more than I expected. Though it is not something I will likely watch again, I have nothing to say about it ethically, good or bad, and I cannot really say anything about it ethically without denouncing sports in general. I did not know who any of the fighters were beforehand, as I do not follow mixed martial arts. Whatever factors I might possibly have used to decide which fighter to empathize with would have been superficial at best, and I am anything but that. From what I saw after each match, it looked like all of the competitors exhibited good sportsmanship, shaking hands and hugging the person who just some five minutes prior they were exchanging roundhouse kicks, elbows, jabs, uppercuts, and take-downs.
If one wanted to levy a charge that Ultimate Fighting Championships is unethical on the grounds that it promotes insensitivity to violence and the suffering of others, one would actually have to denounce every competitive endeavor. One cannot safely hope to vicariously experience the success of two competitors if one’s fortune comes at the misfortune of the other because they are in a duel. Vicarious malice will be felt for one’s purpose and vicarious joy for the other’s purpose. Simply wishing that they each compete well (i.e., conflict for the sake of conflict) does not avoid this conundrum, as a competitor would additionally judge his or her competitive effort based on the means along with the ends. Instead of just being a war between two competitors, an insurrection within the individual would also be added to the mix.
All sports are metaphors for armed conflict; it is part of their appeal. There are the obvious ones like football, but also the javelin throw, boxing, tennis, wrestling, boxing, and even many of the solitary sports like the marathon or archery have their origins in war, and the world has a love affair with conflict. Does anyone know the last time there was no war on earth? No, case in point.
Some of you may be thinking, “But what about mountain climbing?” That type of conflict would be man vs. nature. It would not be fair to call it a war when Nature holds all the cards and calls all the shots. It is more like a siege and game of brinkmanship, where some choose to see how close to the cannon they can make it before turning back to the safety of a crumbling fort.
In these lights mixed martial arts is no different, save that it is sport in its basest form, minus the trappings of most rules. I did note that attacks to the groin, even if incidental, are not permitted, and the referee stopped the clock to permit a fighter to walk it off. It also seemed that the referee would also stop the fight if a knock out is apparent, or if one of the fighters resigns (e.g., one is being suffocated and surrenders).
For some, the days of gladiatorial combat in arenas probably seem like relics from the past. The keener eye will note that they never really left us.