Ted might not be too happy about this, but…
We’ve clothed ourselves in morality and civility, but the Emperor has no clothes. We’re still very much the same species.
I think a lot of people would like to forget that (and would find it easy to forget) while clutching their Starbucks, robed in their Abercrombie & Fitch stepping in Reeboks…
While running to catch horseless beasts that smell of diesel and smoke to be on time to reach our magnificent concrete and glass cathedrals built to worship fiat money…
And maybe while they pray to the God, in whome we trust, from time to time when they need Him for something.
But nothing has happened to us biologically that make today’s generations morally superior to the previous hundred.
I’m virtually identical, physically, to a man who would sit in a colosseum watching other men destroy each other. And cheer as men, women and children were brutalised by wild animals.
The lust for bloodsport is no less potent today than it was millennia ago, though killing is slightly out of fasion unless it’s in virtual form. The colosseums of today have catchy titles too : WWE, ECW, Ultimate Fighter… the list is endless.
I have no delusions about my convictions had I been born in those times as morality is, often, an acquired trait. Rarely is it ever innate.
And violence is a fetish; It always has been and, as long as we remain monkeys with Playstations, it always will be. The only difference is that speech has allowed us to convey cumulative values as my parents have learned from theirs and so on, and how I will convey them to my children.
The target of an attack is irrelevant. Whether an imaginary bout with a jerk of a boss, a failed half of a relationship or a future foe in a dark alley. It is merely the justification for the fetish. No amount of logic will dissuade violence if the inclination is strong enough as our synthetic Goliath that is nurture is no match for the David that is our nature.
The real “dark alley” is in our souls.
Some of us have learned to live with it while others reject it. Others still have chosen to embrace it.
And on that depressing note… A very happy year to you too! :D
(Inspiration for the title, courtesy of Ernest Cline)
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some years ago i was in a small romanian town (i’m from romania); a long lonely street, no crossroads, a dormant place; by the middle of the street was located a railway. suddenly, one of the few trains of the day accidented dealthly an old man. in minutes – i don’t know where from – a hole crowd appeared from nowhere. the same thing is with tv and media news – people watch the accidents, crimes, war news more than national geographic, for example. and, of course, not in romania, all over the world. are we as sadic and cruel as the romans? no, more cruel. the gladiators rarely died in the arena. nowaday the crimes outrun the dead men from an antic war.as for the modern wars…
dan mihalache, iasi, romania
Makes me very upset too.
It is a bizarre fascination isn’t it?
We think we’re so advanced today, yet we’re just as barbaric as ever.