Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

536 Social Uses of the Martial Arts
on fancier games than they could possibly afford. Thus Romans staged
gladiatorial contests in which expensive slaves were killed, and alumni
groups buy new uniforms and team equipment.
Preposterous violence. Humans take pleasure in imagining a world in
which bad things happen to worse people, and James Twitchell has defined
theatrical efforts in this direction as “preposterous violence.” (Some examples
of what he means include religious iconography featuring tortured saints
and deities, Punch-and-Judy shows, comic books, kung fu theater, and professional
wrestling.) Preposterous violence is voyeuristic rather than participatory,
and as a result it usually bolsters rather than threatens the status quo.
Rites of passage. Here the emphasis is usually less on combat effectiveness
than on learning to take one’s lumps like a man. Thus gangs have
beatings-in, schoolboys have hazing, and assorted cultures have youth
games involving mutual flagellation. Military organizations and martial art
classes typically invoke similar rites of passage: “I once studied a martial
art that offered ‘special training’ twice a year,” recalled a martial arts practitioner
during personal correspondence with the author of this entry. “I
don’t believe I ever really learned anything at these events, but the bonding
and the testosterone boost, even among the women in the group, were palpable
for the next few weeks.”
Status. A belt is just a belt, and as any decent philosopher or religious
leader will affirm, it is pointless to claim to be a grand master when one has
yet to master one’s carnal self. Nevertheless, the human desire for status (also
called “ego”) explains why teachers frequently take enormous pride in
grandiloquent titles while their students pay hundreds, sometimes thousands,
of dollars for what are, after all, nothing more than clothing accessories.
Vice. In most societies, vice is a crime only if one gets caught, and as
early as 388 B.C., boxers were being paid to lose in the Olympics. The more
commercial the society, the more likely vice is to flourish, and in the postmodern
world, casino owner Donald Trump has found “a direct relation
between a high roller in the gaming sense and a boxing fan.” (Specifically,
a boxing championship meant an extra $15 million a week in business, and
almost $2 million a week in profits.) (Berger 1993, 193).
There are doubtless more than the twenty categories listed. Of note,
however, is the fact that each category contains the potential for both good
and evil. So regardless of why a society (or individual) patronizes an activity,
it is what the society (or individual) does with the activity that ultimately
matters most.
Joseph R. Svinth
See also Dueling; Folklore in the Martial Arts; Political Conflict and the
Martial Arts