Street Fights

The internet’s Youtube has allowed just about anyone to post a video about any topic, but perhaps even more importantly, it has allowed anyone to view these videos. This freedom and power of sharing moving images and sound, which in information conveyed far exceeds the proverbial picture equaling a thousand words, has had interesting effects on our culture in the U.S. as well as in the world at large. Topics that traditionally did not have widespread exposure are suddenly immensely popular due to people simply having access to footage of said topics. Scenes previously obscure, rare, or just plain distasteful are now presented for all to see, and boy are people watching. Appropriately enough for human nature, topics which are secret, disturbing, or taboo tend to receive the most attention. Such is the case with street fighting. As a part of life, street fighting is a mundane, if occasional event which most people will never have the chance and/or misfortune to participate in. Nevertheless, most people, at least most male people, have either envisioned the scenario or at least are familiar with the concept through the much-loved and much-plated Street Fighter series of video games. The fight-or-flight response is basic to being human, we are told, and I doubt any person has not considered what they would do in a fight situation, whether they would fight with all they had or cower into the fetal position while hoping for a decent outcome. It’s a fascinating use of the imagination, to be engaged in a semi-serious to life-threatening physical confrontation. It’s enough to get the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing just thinking about it. I believe that this explains the immense popularity of videos of street fights on Youtube- people actively imagine themselves in the shoes of combatants, and they get a sense of what it would feel like to be in an actual raw, unscripted fight. The difference between street fights and the movies is that things don’t happen so simply and cleanly in a street fight. People with no fighting experience often have a certain idea about how a fight look and feels, and have their world rocked either when they see footage of a real street fight or when they find themselves with a real fight on their hands. Realizing they don’t know anything about how to win an actual fight, they might start searching out any footage they can find to try to learn something. Of course, a lot of people search for street fighting videos for the pure entertainment value, too, groaning or laughing when someone gets whomped. Many people are sickened by street fight clips they see, and it seems that this is the proper reaction. It's hard to say whether seeing such videos makes people more or less likely to get in a fight. My guess would be that people would not want to recreate such experiences in their personal lives, though, so perhaps it's not a bad thing for people to watch such clips.

Although humans have arguably evolved to a level where we are more free from having to undergo physical confrontations for mates or food, for instance, we still have the biological urge to be able to fend off would-be injury to our body. This deep-seated part of us means big bucks in terms of violent movies, organized fighting sports and tournaments, self-defense classes, books, and videos, and anything else having to do with fighting, as we see with the Youtube phenomenon. The realization brought about by these videos has triggered a shift in self-defense classes from traditional, mostly eastern practices, to methods which are touted as being more practical and useful. They cite, rightly, the ineffectiveness of fancy, flowery martial arts moves and claim to focus on techniques that really work in real life, for real street fighting. Though these methods exploit peoples’ search for The One Best Fighting System, they may be more effective that the traditional martial arts, at least in allowing people to learn a few street fighting techniques. What people need to understand, however, is that these techniques may or may not work for real for them. There are so many variables in a fight, it helps to be prepared but it can hurt to only think you are prepared. It can really hurt if you have a certain move in your mind, and you are planning how to use it during the fight- the thing about fighting is, it has to be automatic. If you’re thinking about what to do as opposed to acting naturally, you are probably going to be too slow and leave yourself vulnerable to attack. In this case, more theoretical training may be better- in the case of certain traditions and teachers who teach that it is better to not have to fight than to fight, one might simply walk away. Attitude is everything. When one has a firm stance and a spirit of peace but also the intention to act in self-defense and put up a good fight when threatened, it is often enough to discourage a fight from starting. It is considered the highest level of martial mastery to be able to not have to fight. How would it be for our culture to take a cue from that?