{"id":67481,"date":"2023-07-22T08:30:29","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T13:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=67481"},"modified":"2023-07-22T06:29:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T11:29:50","slug":"fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/22\/fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Mark Andreessen<\/a><\/h2>\n

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At a private conference this week, I was asked what I think of Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s recent\u00a0Mixed Martial Arts<\/a>\u00a0(MMA)\u00a0training<\/a>, Elon Musk\u2019s\u00a0challenge<\/a>\u00a0to a cage fight, and public reports that a Zuckerberg\/Musk MMA fight may well happen later this year, perhaps in the\u00a0actual Roman Colosseum<\/a><\/em>.<\/h3>\n

I said, \u201cI think that\u2019s all\u00a0great<\/em>.\u201d And in this post I explain why.<\/h3>\n

First, while the extraordinary\u00a0Dana White<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0Ultimate Fighting Championship<\/a>\u00a0(UFC) have elevated MMA into a highly popular public sport over\u00a0the last 20 years<\/a>, it\u2019s important to understand how important \u2013 how\u00a0primal<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 MMA is in the story of our civilization.<\/h3>\n

MMA is the\u00a0original<\/em>\u00a0combat sport \u2013 it was introduced to the actual Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC (!). The Greeks called it \u201cpankration<\/a>\u201d (\u03c0\u03b1\u03b3\u03ba\u03c1\u03ac\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd), but it is the same thing \u2013 a combination of boxing and wrestling. To quote Wikipedia:<\/h3>\n

\u201cIn Greek mythology, the heroes Heracles and Theseus invented pankration as a result of using both wrestling and boxing in their confrontations with opponents. Theseus was said to have used pankration to defeat Cercyon of Eleusis in a wrestling match, as well as the minotaur in the labyrinth. Heracles was depicted in ancient artworks subduing the Nemean lion using pankration.\u201d<\/h3>\n

\u201cPankration, as practiced in historical antiquity, was an athletic event that combined techniques of both boxing and wrestling, as well as additional elements, such as the use of strikes with the legs, to create a fighting sport similar to [MMA]. Although knockouts were common, most pankration competitions were decided on the basis of submission \u2013 yielding to a submission or joint lock. Pankratiasts were highly skilled grapplers and were extremely effective in applying a variety of takedowns, chokes and joint locks.\u201d<\/h3>\n

\u201cHowever, pankration was more than just an event in the athletic competitions of the ancient Greek world; it was also part of the arsenal of Greek soldiers \u2013 including the famous Spartan hoplites and Alexander the Great’s Macedonian phalanx.\u201d<\/h3>\n

If the hair on the back of your neck isn\u2019t going up as you read this\u2026 MMA isn\u2019t just a sport, it\u2019s\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0sport. And today, like then, it has not only sporting elements but also real world utility. I\u2019ll come back to that.<\/h3>\n

I was also asked whether I consider Mark and Elon to be role models to children in their embrace of fighting, and I said, enthusiastically,\u00a0yes<\/em>. And I further recommended to the audience that they have their children trained in MMA, as my wife and I are. Kids as young as 8 and maybe even younger are totally capable of learning both the striking and grappling dimensions of the sport. MMA teaches not just combat skills \u2013 and it does teach those \u2013 but also discipline, emotional control, respect, and a deep sense of\u00a0responsibility<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

The message to kids is not, this is how you beat people up. The message is, this is how you\u00a0protect<\/em>\u00a0yourself \u2013 and as important, this is how you protect your\u00a0family<\/em>, your\u00a0friends<\/em>, your\u00a0community<\/em>. You use these combat skills in the service of\u00a0others<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 you never start a fight, but when someone is threatening someone you love, or even an innocent bystander, this is how you\u00a0end<\/em>\u00a0a fight.<\/h3>\n

To a lot of people, this sounds like a message out of time. Surely in the modern world, one would never need to protect oneself or one\u2019s family with actual interpersonal physical violence?<\/h3>\n

I would love for that to be the case, but unfortunately, the world is evolving in such a way where that is becoming less true every day. Many of the biggest and most important cities in the United States have decided they\u00a0don\u2019t<\/a>\u00a0need<\/a>\u00a0law<\/a>\u00a0enforcement<\/a>, and\u00a0street<\/a>\u00a0level<\/a>\u00a0violence<\/a>\u00a0is<\/a>\u00a0on<\/a>\u00a0the<\/a>\u00a0rise<\/a>, as anyone in those cities with functional eyes can see. People get\u00a0attacked<\/a>\u00a0in<\/a>\u00a0the<\/a>\u00a0street<\/a>, or in\u00a0carjackings<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0home invasions<\/a>, daily, in plain sight, and little to nothing happens. It\u2019s terrible, but it\u2019s true.<\/h3>\n

And so, yes, if there aren\u2019t going to be police to protect you and your loved ones from real world violent assault, there is a practical need to know applied self defense. And hand-to-hand fighting \u2013 MMA \u2013 is the core self defense skill.<\/h3>\n

Another benefit of MMA training, for both children and adults, is physical fitness.<\/h3>\n

We all know our culture is in the grip of an obesity crisis \u2013 according to the\u00a0CDC<\/a>, \u201cObesity in the United States now affects 100.1 million (41.9%) adults and 14.7 million (19.7%) children.\u201d This is a terrible situation that curses people to shorter and unhappier lives.\u00a0President John F Kennedy<\/a>\u00a0saw this coming<\/a>\u00a0in his time (!):<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe are underexercised as a nation. The remedy, in my judgment, lies in one direction. That is in developing programs for broad participation in exercise by all of our young men and women, all of our boys and girls. The sad fact is that our national sport is not playing at all, but watching. We have become more and more, not a nation of athletes but a nation of spectators. There are more important goals than winning contests \u2014 and that is to improve on a broad level the health and vitality of all our people.\u201d<\/h3>\n

We did not listen to him in the decades that followed, but we can now. MMA training is likely the best path for widespread gains in physical fitness, particularly for children. MMA training itself is both effective exercise\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0motivates one to improve one\u2019s strength and endurance. And not just in the abstract, as a pointless hamster wheel process, but for a\u00a0purpose<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 to win fights.<\/h3>\n

Finally, consider the combination of physical fitness and the ability to defend one\u2019s loves. The result is self-respect \u2013 not the self-respect of armchair therapy and wishful thinking, but\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0self-respect, the earned realization that one is strong and useful and of merit, and of value. Skilled fighters\u00a0carry<\/em>\u00a0themselves differently, and this is why. In our present time, where many young people are\u00a0suffering<\/a>\u00a0from anxiety, depression, and what can only be described as\u00a0anomie<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 again, from the Greek, \u1f00\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03af\u03b1, \u201clawlessness\u201d, a collapse in the code of expected adult behavior \u2013 what could be better than a return to earned self-respect?<\/h3>\n

One more thing: Lest this be taken for some kind of gendered argument, let me say clearly that I think MMA is just as useful and relevant for young girls as it is for young boys.<\/h3>\n

So yes \u2013 I think it\u2019s great that MMA is the rising American national sport, that Mark is training so hard in it (and getting\u00a0jacked<\/em>), that Elon, a past martial arts aficionado in his own right, is challenging Mark to a fight, and that both Mark and Elon are top-end role models for children in our society, including my own \u2013 whether they end up fighting in the Colosseum or not!<\/h3>\n

If it was good enough for Heracles and Theseus, it\u2019s good enough for us.<\/h3>\n

Fight!<\/em><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Mark Andreessen     At a private conference this week, I was asked what I think of Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s recent\u00a0Mixed Martial Arts\u00a0(MMA)\u00a0training, Elon Musk\u2019s\u00a0challenge\u00a0to a cage fight, and public reports that a Zuckerberg\/Musk MMA fight may well happen later this year, perhaps in the\u00a0actual Roman Colosseum. I said, \u201cI think that\u2019s all\u00a0great.\u201d And in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5477,387,388,402],"tags":[5575,373,372,8989,16211,7993],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67483,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67481\/revisions\/67483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}