Is fighting right under any condition?
Disrespect, pride, protection? Why or Why not?PsychoChick617
Fighting is a barbaric expression of our primitive need to dominate. We fight when our words and intellect fail us. That there is always a war going on somewhere in the world gives testimony to how primitive we still are as a species. That fighting is broadcast as a sport and used as entertainment is one of the most deplorable and barbaric aspects of our culture... far worse than other "barbaric" sports like football. Prize fighting and wrestling and other gladiatorial "sports" are little more than continuations of Roman barbarism, and say what you like about the Romans and their civilization, they may have coined the term barbarian for the way the Celtic language sounded to their ears, but they were hardly as high and mighty as they considered themselves to be... but that's a blog for another time.
There are two circumstances under which fighting is acceptable. One is in practice, when perfecting an athletic skill as with martial arts, where the goal is not to injure your opponent but to show the level of your skill by not injuring your opponent. That is, the only time using martial arts is acceptable is when subduing, but not injuring, your opponent. Fighting to subdue your opponent is not fighting so much as it is an attempt to minimize injury. It is, in effect, a peacekeeping method.
The other circumstance under which fighting is acceptable is in self defense, but the goal should be the same... minimize injury with the goal of subduing, not harming, your opponent. The first naturally leads to the second as the better trained your are to defend yourself from attack, the more effectively you will be able to do so without undue harm to your opponent.
In so far as we like to consider ourselves civilized, minimizing harm to those around us should always be our first concern. Fighting is best left to words and debate, not fists and knees (or tooth and nail - or knives and guns). But since there will always be those who cannot control their baser instincts to lash out physically at those who surpass them mentally, it behooves us all to have some training in defense simply for the sake of being ready to reduce the amount of harm we might otherwise do in self-defense. We should all in some way train to control and recruit our baser instincts to the service of our reason, and reason should be under the control of our honor and integrity, always.
The only time actual fighting should be considered justifiable is when it is in response to violence offered yourself or others ill-equipped to defend themselves. The more spiritually and emotionally evolved an individual is, the less they can justify acts of violence. Protection of self or of others is the only time in which fighting is a reasonable response because self-preservation and by extension preservation of one's companions as a representation of community is a justifiable cause. No one can expect you to just allow violence against yourself or others, but how you choose to reply to that violence is always under your control.
Wars are not justifiable. They are murder. Gang violence is not justifiable. They are a war for dominance and an expression of our primitive nature. Retaliation is not justifiable because it usually entails attacking a foe who is not currently engaged in an act of violence. The only time fighting is justifiable is when it happens at the moment of attack and one's opponent is subsequently subdued with a minimum of malice.
do not harm where holding is enough, do not wound where harming is enough, do not maim where wounding is enough, do not kill where maiming is enough, the greatest warrior of all is one who does not need to kill.
- Stephen R. Donaldson (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
March 13th
Diotima, teacher of Socrates, is honored.
Comments (6)
Got to the martial arts part. I have taken Karate and Tae Kwon Do (still can't spell) and liked the structure, discipline, exercise, etc. I just didn't like having to fight other people. OK, I was attacked when I was 17 - the guy lost a tooth and had a black eye (ala moi), but that was self-defense. I say make the 'leaders' who start the wars do the fighting...
I have to say, I do think watching boxing is great.
For some reason, this post made me want to watch Pleasantville.
Great piece.
@travelerblue - When I was about 9 or so, my sister and I were out riding our bikes and stopped in at a penny candy store. When we came out, a group of teenage boys had commandeered our bikes and wouldn't give them back. Then they started whipping us with willow sticks. I walked up to the ringleader and kicked him... where men do not generally like to be kicked. It ended the confrontation and my sister and I rode away. If I had been older or trained in some kind of self defense, I probably would have gone back into the store and asked for help, tried to talk to the boys, or incapacitated him in some way that did not threaten his future children. lol Ah well. I like to consider myself a pacificist these days, but if I had to defend myself or someone else on the spur of the moment, I think I'd step up. I do not like injustice. It grates on me like fingernails on a chalkboard.
@heidenkind - Pleasantville?? lol I hate boxing. Truth be told, the only sport I care to watch upon occassion is gymnastics, and that's nottechnically a sport.
@Altered_Sight - Thanks
@harmony0stars - Why don't you consider gymnastics a sport? It's in the Olympics.... are you going to say baton twirling isn't a sport now?!
I also love to watch sumo wrestling.
@heidenkind - I suppose I see sport as being adversarial. Though gymnastics is technically a competition, I see it more as an exercise of skill which is arbitrarily judged by others. Sumo wrestling is more in keeping with a sport be cause it involves two men striving against one another, but conversely it is also an exercise in skill. They are not trying to hurt one another, but they are trying to overwhelm the other and force him out of the circle. Not so with boxing. Each person is trying to inflict as much damage as possible on the other to the extent that when they retire, they often have visible signs of brain damage. So sumo wrestling is less a sport in my mind that boxing, and obviously much less barbaric.
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