Well, I finally finished writing a response to a comment from i eat dentists that was made to my blog on June 8th about UFC stuff. Specifically, the part where he said "as a Christian, I can no longer support this type of violence". As usual for a controversial topic, my response is just too long to make a comment out of. In this case it's too long for a blog too, so I posted a web page about it in the Thoughts section of our family website.Let me know what you think (if anyone is brave enough to read the whole thing).
3 comments:
Mike, that was a pretty good defense of your position. However let me state that while intentions are often good, the results don't always justify those intentions. To keep things short, it has turned into a money making event by selling violence and promoting that violence as acceptable behavior. People are largely not like you and want to see blood, broken limbs, and people beating the crap out of other people instead of sport. What is this teaching our kids? Kids are mimicking this sort of thing every day on the streets. Kids are not going to see this as training for self defense. I would never argue against self defense, or even anybody doing martial arts, or any sort of fight training. However, why do we need to put it on TV? The answer of why is to make money from violence. If you want sport, watch football. People are often very attracted to violence as we see from TV programming, and movies. Where as it is not frequent that these avenues actually seem to promote violence, that is often the effect. The UFC on the other hand is entirely promoting violence (in my opinion) as they are saying it is OK to beat the crap out of other people.
A good answer is "don't let your kids watch it". Sure, fine, that works for my kids, but what about other kids that I can't control? I don't want some kid going all UFC on my son. The same thing goes for video games and movies. Regardless of your opinion, it is leaking into society through the kids who's parents let them watch this sort of stuff. Even then most kids can at least know that games and movies aren't real. The UFC is real. It is real men beating each other, bleeding, breaking arms, legs, noses, and often walking off the stage very badly hurt. This is the intent of it, not a side effect. Being real promotes it as being OK. In principle I agree with your fundamental arguments, but what where I disagree with it is what its outside and unintended influences are.
To be continued...
Eric,
It hasn't turned into a money making event, it has always been one. So what? I don’t understand how MMA making money is worse than paying money to see a Jackie Chan movie, a horror movie, a kickboxing match, a boxing event, or worse - pro wrestling.
How do you know that people are largely not like me and that they want to see blood, broken limbs, etc? Maybe you’re assuming the worst about them.
When I was a kid, boys fought each other. When my dad was a kid, boys fought each other too. I would not be surprised to hear that kids are fighting each other in the streets these days, because they have been doing so for generations on end. That’s what kids do! Does that make it good or right? No, it’s absolutely wrong and moreover it’s retarded too, but it is normal. What is frightening is when boys don’t fight fairly and pull weapons out instead of their fists. That is what I am afraid of for my kids. If anything, I’m hoping the popularity of MMA will bring back plain old street fighting amongst kids, instead of shooting or stabbing each other.
I do not want to watch football. I personally find it to be a boring waste of time. I want to watch fighting, and I am willing to pay money to watch it. If you want to pay for football, then you pay for football. I personally prefer watching MMA. That’s what is so great about capitalism.
The UFC is only saying (as is boxing) that it is OK for two men who agree to fight under controlled conditions to duke it out and to see who is the best at it, not to “beat the crap out of other people”, as if someone is being victimized through assault. I'll expand on that idea more on another web page though. It's too long for comments.
Instead of talking paranoia and panic OH MY GOD MY CHILD IS GOING TO GET THE CRAP BEAT OUT OF HIM! I JUST KNOW IIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!, have you considered actually using your worries to do something positive, such as taking your son somewhere to actually learn how to defend himself? As I said before, the worst thing that can happen to your son is not getting beat up (it happened plenty to me), but to get shot, stabbed, or slashed. And if he does get beat up, is it the fault of the UFC, or of boxing, or action movies, or video games, or maybe Kimbo on YouTube, or….
What are the actions that you can take now Eric, besides ranting and raving? Instead of jumping up and down and crying foul, maybe you can realize that fighting has been around as long as boys have been interacting with each other on a playground, long before the UFC started selling its wares on pay-per-view. Heck, turn on a nature channel and you will see the male animals fighting each other to determine either who the leader is and/or who will get to mate with the desired female. And maybe you will consider giving your son an advantage by teaching him how to fight yourself or taking him somewhere else to learn how to fight.
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