It makes me laugh how wars are continually justified by reference to mankind’s aggressive nature and we’ll glorify the use of grenade-launchers, helicopter gunships and anything that gets the job done, but try and promote a good old-fashioned, regulated fist-fight and you are contributing to the decline of civilisation.
Combat sports are a direct result of the civilising of man’s - and the occasional woman’s - more violent, war-loving traits.
I don’t think it’s being advocated by anyone that people should randomly get a kicking just to know what it feel’s like.
Ah, you’re looking for Being Hit On The Head Lessons.
wuthering_lows, if I understand you correctly, you’re saying it’s good for us to get hurt—to take a punch, or to get flamed on the Internet, or things like that—at least once in our lives, because it teaches us, “Hey! That really hurts! I shouldn’t do that to anyone else!”
I understand the logic, but I’m not convinced by experience that being hurt themselves makes people less likely to hurt others; nor that we have to go out of our way or make a special effort to enroll in the School of Hard Knocks.
If you intertwine your Real Life™ with your internet presence, it is inevitable that you are going to be affected in a way that hurts more than your virtual presence. Until it is compulsory for people to use social media and attach details connecting them to RL™, people who don’t like rudeness and incivility need to accept that they actually ARE attending the School Of Hard Knocks.
I’ll advocate it. Not completely randomly of course though. Every child should take a few boxing/sparring/self defense lessons, somewhere between the ages of 10 and 15. Taking a few blows and dishing out a couple yourself in a controlled environment gives perspective to social interactions in a deep and subtle way many of you may not understand. Particularly if you’ve never been in a fight. It gives you a sense of your own physical power, as well as the very real power of others. It provides real perspective on the realities of fighting as opposed to television glamour and highly stylized martial arts. It allows you to see that others are real, feeling people; capable of enduring and creating physical pain. It allows others to see the same of you. Believe it or not, this lesson goes very deep and colours your interactions with others later. Not in a surface, shallow, “I better be nice or else!” way, but in a subtle manner that lurks at the base of the reptile brain. The unconscious remembers that pain of being struck, and moderates the worst of the bad behaviour before it even makes it to the mouth. Civility and avoidance of conflict becomes the habit, rather than the selfish, rude behaviour; because that primitive part of you remembers that consequences can be real.
I’d support such advocacy, with the addition of wrestling/judo classes for 5 to 10 yr olds. As well as being a wonderful way of tiring the little beggars out in a relatively safe environment, it’d teach them a lot about controlling their physicality and how you don’t have to hit someone to stop them hitting you.