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What's behind fight clubs
A new, unsanctioned sporting event has been sweeping the nation since the movie "Fight Club" was released in 1999. The movie depicted disaffected young adults competing in bare-knuckle boxing matches in underground clubs and in front of large audiences. The film was a huge commercial success among teen-agers and has since become a top-selling video.
Since the movies' release, real fight clubs have been popping up all over the country. Arrests have been made in large cities such as Seattle, Provo and Milwaukee to small towns like Turlock, Calif.
We have long debated in this country whether movies simply reflect culture or do they, in fact, create culture? The conclusion, at least in this context, is that there is no doubt this particular movie created culture. There is no record of any fight clubs being in existence before the movie was made. Now it is an activity that is sweeping the nation. That fact begs the question "Why?" Why would people go to the trouble of staging elaborate fights between untrained combatants? Why would spectators want to see such a spectacle? Why would people risk arrest to take part in these exhibitions? Police departments across the country have stated that fight clubs are illegal activities and that, if located, everyone will be arrested including the spectators. What is the lure? What is the hook?
We have, of course, been exposed to similar kinds of behavior for years. One need look no further than pro wrestling or tough man contests. These events are huge event draws as well as commanding high ratings whenever they are on television. What is it that sucks us into these kinds of activities? I think the answer is actually pretty simple. Manners, decorum, conversation, and acting civilized are all social products. We have learned to act this way. If you trace man back to its beginnings, you will find man acting exactly like all the other animals. In the days of the cave man, life was simply and completely determined by the law of survival of the fittest. The strong and powerful survived, the weak didn't. It was a process of natural selection. Through thousands of years, Man became socialized, the animals didn't. So, in the wild, survival of the fittest still reigns supreme. The weakest member of the species is either left behind or killed by a predator. Among the strong, battles are constantly taking place to insure that the strongest lead the herd.
This desire to achieve, dominate, and survive is at our core. It hasn't been socialized out of us, it has just been driven underground. It is primarily a male drive because of the presence of testosterone. So, when we have the opportunity to watch a contest that declares a winner at the end, we are drawn to it like we're drawn to nothing else. And the tougher it is, the bloodier it is, the deadlier it is, the more we like it. Because during the time we're either participating or observing, we have recaptured at least a part of that primal urge left to us by our ancestors. We feel alive. We feel in control. We feel dominant.
Long before fight clubs, we had fights. We've always had fights. And regardless of the reason we use for a fight, the primary objective is for us to assert our dominance over someone else. Whether it's to prove we're tougher, meaner, without fear, or simply the baddest cat in the whole damn town, some of us are drawn to combative lifestyles. Some of us are drawn to settling debates with our fists when it's obvious it can't be settled with our wits. For any man who has grown up competing at the top level in every arena he's entered, to wimp out, beg out, or crawl out is simply an unacceptable option. For those men, they must assert their dominance even when the odds are against them because nothing else is an acceptable option.
Whether this makes sense or not to many of you, it is true. Many men and most women have had their combative nature de-socialized to the point that they're not even aware it's still there. But it is there in every man, lurking underground, waiting to be unleashed. In some of you, it may never surface. In others, it may surface in positive ways, such as finding the strength to single-handedly lift a car off a trapped victim, and to others it may surface often when a person's dominance is challenged. If you question this desire that lies in the belly of us all, just look at the dominant national response to Osama Ben Laden and his band of terrorists. We don't want to just find him, catch him and arrest him. That would be too civilized.
We want to kick his butt.