I saw an interesting conflict resolution video on Facebook, this morning. Evidently, some of the commuter trains around here have "quiet cars" where electronics are not allowed. So, no phones or boomboxes, I guess.
Well, try and tell that to the diminutive Board of Trader here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzq8bfOgihA&feature=youtu.be
As someone in the comments noted, "he's got a booster seat on the Board of Trade."
Pretty awful language but, not much violence. Quite tame compared to the thousands of fight videos on youtube. With everyone in the world but me having a cameraphone, we all might as well be living in that Big Brother house. Kids after school fights are pretty popular. A look at the crowd and usually everyone but the (usually) two combatants are filming. That should change when those futuristic Google glasses come out.
I don't know that people are more violent than previously in history. The media is definitely more available to the masses now. The next Spike Lee will not come out of Compton but, there are plenty of folks with phones documenting fisticuffs, at all levels of society, seemingly everywhere. The internet amplifies everything and there are more people on earth at this moment than ever before in history.
If, when I was in high school, we had camera phones and an internet, we would have put our fights on youtube. It's as if that were the natural course of things. So, more people means more fights. The combatants seem the same, years later and so do the assholes screaming support for their fighter, advice or just screaming with delight at two people making each other bleed. One difference is the very annoying assholes who scream: "WORLD STAR!!!!!WORLD STAR!!!!!" as if they were climaxing. They might be. (Ferrerman note: WORLDSTAR is a site where people send clips of fights. It's mostly black folks fighting, filming and viewing it seems. Violent video is an equal opportunity exploiter though. WorldStar just works harder to drag down one race more than others.) The blood-lust seems harsher these days but, there are still people who have a sense of fair play. Sometimes two people have to fight. That will draw a crowd. Hopefully, there are some in the crowd that will step in if the odds change and one fighters friend(s) joins the fray or if one fighter is knocked out or clearly beaten and helpless and- all too often- the winner or just some opportunistic asshole- feels the need to finish the defeated off with kicks to the head. This is known in legal circles as homicide. Manslaughter, maybe, if you're some argumentative list-maker... But, I digress. Whatever, it's chickenshit.
People can be killed in street fights and kicks to the head or blows to the back of the head will do that. A simple disagreement where fisticuffs seems to be the thing to do at the time is no longer fun and games if one life ends and another continues on in prison.
I wrote about mobs and how cowardly they are, the other day. A lot of people are damn near orgasmic about violence. I don't like violence as entertainment but, I did grow up admiring John Wayne's ability to kick ass but, there was a message in his violence and it wasn't bullying or drunken idiocy. And, you just didn't- literally- kick a man when he was down. Well, cowards did. The Duke and Matt Dillon and thousands of others did not bully or victimize their enemies. When they fought it was productive violence.
Fighting for entertainment eludes me too. I can't get into the various versions of the UFC even though it's fairer now than it was in the 90's when a 5' tall martial arts guy might fight a 400# Sumo wrestler. That shit was a little too much like ancient Rome where the fight promoters of the day sat around spit-balling ideas like: "Christians versus lions!! VERY HUNGRY lions!!"
I think it's bizarre when two guys all but kill each other and then, when it's over, embrace like brothers. That's the sport of it, I reckon. They're not really mad at each other. Nothing was said about anyone's mother and the virtue of one's sister was not called into question. It was just a contest of skill. Were you not entertained?!
I just wonder again how far away we might be from the Gladiator days of yore. Maybe one republican president?
7 comments:
Whenever gas hits a certain high point, my DB goes out and purchases a bus pass to get to his downtown studio. While half of the trip is spent on the peaceful tram line, the other is spent going through skid row on a bus. And it seems DB often comes home with a story or two. Last Friday's drama occured when a Mexican fellow came on the bus with garbage bags loaded with clothing. The black guy, buffed up from a prison stint (how you can tell) started screaming at the guy saying "don't come near me with all that shit, ain't no room for it, etc" This caused the concerned hipster white kid to intervene; which was very brief in that buff black guy stood up and towered menacingly over hipster - who went mute. European backpackers, clueless as they make their way to the Grey Hound station, had the good sense NOT to pull out a camera - which most likely would become the domain of anyone who had the balls to grab it and run off into the territory of the rolling 50's.
The point being if a tree falls in a poor man's forest and no "Board Trader" is there to record it - it still happened.
thank you for your time
I will now have a peanut butter and banana sandwich
SOMEBODY had to have filmed it! I swear- between the BIG BROTHER surveillance on the street, store security and phones- our whole lives seem to be on tape.
I haven't been on the bus in years. I can imagine it has it's moments. A lot of people commute here downtown by train and, except drunks coming home from festivals, it's pretty civilized.
On thing about the ubiquitous cameras though is that it should now be harder for the 2nd place finishers in fights to say they "won". "Let's go to the videotape..."
The latest version of 'home invasion' are carpets wired so that they can record every individual footstep of a person coming and going.
Chris Tolles has already outfitted the corporate headquarters of Topix.com with this latest version of Surveillance. Of course this is being used as an excuse to eliminate pay raises and Christmas bonuses for the moderators.
This upsets us very much. We hope by next Christmas we'll have a union in place to protect us from unfair employment practices.
I will now have a Cobb salad and Pepsi for dinner
I liked it when John Wayne spanked Maureen O'Hara. I don't remember the name of the movie.
Commuters in my neck of the woods use BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system to go under the Bay to get to the City by the Bay and sometimes Amtrak to get to BART. My commuter kid wears her ear phones and sunglasses because the thing to do, she says, is don't make ear or eye contact. Sometimes the train runs over someone, but people just shrug, it seems. Another delay. This area is not as glamorous as so many believe.
lol@ToxicWikiLeaks
I think John Wayne spanked Maureen Ohara in either "Sands Of Iwo Jima" or "The Green Berets". I could be wrong. I hate to Google.
Wouldn't the FRISCO Area Rapid Transit be more memorable? Or does that idea stink?
It was the "Quiet Man"
Great picture btw
McClintock!
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