Boxing is a lot more full on than the fun martial arts with padded floors that we send our kids to nowadays. By itself, that wouldn’t necessarily lead to kids and adults brawling but coupled with a general culture that valorised men who were quick with their fists, being trained to be one of those men would likely affect people’s assessment of whether they could or should start a fight.
American society, in general, has lessened physical abuse. An example that came to mind:
In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, George, as a kid, tries to stop the druggist from sending out a bad prescription; druggist, who was drunk after hearing his kid died in WW1, slaps George in the ear. Later on, when seeing the adult George, Clarence says “Is that the same boy who had his ears boxed by the druggist?”
So, hitting was considered part of everyday life. Kid does something wrong, you slap them. Corporal punishment was the rule, not the exception. We, as a society have changed that. You slap someone else’s kid, you’re going to get arrested. I do believe that has extended to many sectors of society, including adult male interactions.
This is just a theory, but we seem to have become a more litigious society. Get in a fight with someone, knock their tooth out – and get sued for their staggeringly large hospital bill? No thanks. Also, with everyone having smartphones now, get in a fight, have bystanders record and post the brouhaha to social media – and your employer finds out? Bye-bye job, maybe. Again, no thanks.
Or donnybrook.
Well, yeah.
Legally speaking, if you start brawling in public, you might be busted for affray ($500 fine in Texas, whereas in e.g. England you could end up doing time)
Ruckus. Fracas. Quarrel. Scuffle. Tussle. Melee. Brawl. Brouhaha.
(There are lots of these!)
kerfuffle scrap
Is it a Real™ Donnybrook if it doesn’t happen in a certain district of Dublin?
I get a lot of high school/college age students from rural areas, and I’ve had more than one say that there’s not much else to do at night, except go to the bar out on the highway, shoot a little pool, get a little drunk, and get in a fight. Geez, it’s like it’s on their To Do List.
That’s certainly cut down on my yelling at other drivers, or even mouthing off to a guy talking too loud before a movie.
The OP needs to spend some time on Worldstar.
The Irish have 100 different words for it…?
You may have to take that up with the origin branding office of the EU.
Yeah, they’re like the Eskimos of fighting.
Seems like a good thing to me. The way it should be.
There’s also some correlation between politeness/etiquette and population density. It’s a means of coping with and streamlining the numerous social interactions in cultures dominated by dense urban settlements. Japan and England are prime examples, the former especially, and also notably non-violent.
England is a prime example of non-violence? I suppose we are talking about contemporary society, but I was under the impression that pub brawls and hooliganism are just as much a part of English culture as in Scotland or Ireland.
The migration to the cities during the industrial revolution and the concentration of large numbers if workers associated with production and huge building projects. Surely a recipe for testosterone fuelled recreation.
It is worse on big construction sites. Put a lot if men together doing hard physical labour away from the civilising influence of family and they will inevitably find and outlet through drink and fisticuffs.
In cities with large numbers of factory workers, it becomes institutionalised in sport. Most soccer clubs in the UK were based around factory workers and gave rise to the British football hooligan.
These days they are all probably getting a testostrone high by killing zombies in video shoot em up games.
Progress….of a kind?
It’s also the case that a lot of men are now getting a testosterone high by the simple expedient of injecting some. Or another precursor substance.
Of course one of the side effects of excessive circulating testosterone, besides increased libido, decreased erectile capability, & easier muscle-building, is increased aggression. leading to hanging out in the gym, getting huge, and getting into more shouting matches and or hitting people.
If it’s not from the Donnybrook district of Dublin, it’s just sparkling violence.