Why Men Love Violence

I had some great drama this weekend.

I was walking home yesterday when three men tore grappling and yelling out of a liquor store. Two were chasing one, and they all appeared dishevelled, like lowlifes. The crowd gathered around surely thinking this was crackhead drama, until one of them yelled “We’re cops! We’re arresting him!”

Thinking World Star I pulled out my camera and filmed the battle, the thief trying to get away, and the cops pulling him to the pavement. But he was strong and from his back put one of the cops in a headlock while the other tried unsuccessfully to handcuff him. The cop looked at me standing there with a camera, and I thought “fuck it.”

I dropped my bag and fell upon the perp, pinning one of his arms to the ground. But he was damn strong, like a methed out ox, and started getting up to his feet, pulling the three of us with him. So remembering everything I’d seen in the UFC, I spun around behind him and with my right arm, put him in a headlock, and with my other I pulled his left arm out, twisted my body weight so he fell onto his stomach, and pinned his arm with my knee. I laid there choking his neck while he said “I can’t breathe!”

Eventually mall cops arrived and took over my position. The cops looked at me, said “Thanks,” then dragged him away.

Where’s my citation? I thought. Where’s the mayor with the key to the city? Where’s Global news, and the ticker tape parade and the adoring groupies who would pamper this real life Batman?

No. I just walked home and went back to work on a blog post.

It was the most fun I’ve had this year.

Since then I’ve wondered what compelled me to help them? Was it because I thought they were in danger? Or it was my civic duty and a sense of justice? Was it for the pure joy of putting myself in a dangerous situation?

Then I asked, would I have jumped in if it was a domestic dispute between competing winos? Probably not. Or what If I lived in a totalitarian police state, and this man was simply exercising his free speech and was being oppressed by Gestapo like thought police? Would I have helped him and placed myself at the mercy of a fascist state? Likely not.

So it was a mixture of helping out a seemingly just cause, and the thrill of placing myself in a potentially dangerous situation.

Friedrich Nietzsche famously stated: “The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman; as the most dangerous plaything.”

When my Mother first saw my Father, there was a giant crowd gathered outside her highschool. She peered into the center, and he was sitting full mount on top of another kid, bouncing his skull off the pavement. She claimed she found his behaviour repulsive, yet married him and had three of his children. In my event there were no attractive women watching, but I’d be lying if it wasn’t also the spectating crowd that also compelled me to help, since nobody else would.

Living in a metropolitan, prosperous and overwhelmingly liberal modern city, it’s easy to forget that there are towns

and neighbourhoods where violence is a regular part of life. There are men who’s job it is to control the base instinct of violence; like cops, bouncers, soldiers and security guards. Something compelled them to apply for these jobs, and it surely wasn’t monetary gain.

There were times in history where violence was unavoidable, and to not fight meant death, or subjugation. There are places in the modern world where violence is omnipresent. Downtown Vancouver isn’t one of those places… not for normies like myself, anyway.

Freud in his book “Civilization and its Discontents” makes a jab at liberal socialism, arguing that the equalization of wealth would not diminish dominance and violence, because humans have an instinctual need to assert dominance. So the sharing of land, wealth and resources will not stop neighbours from bullying, or exploiting others for resources, for the pure joy of power. If men can’t find an outlet for their aggression, they’ll create one, by finding hobbies that simulate it like sports, and video games, or by gravitating towards careers that put them in direct contact with danger. Without those outlets for male aggression, there would be a lot more bullies.

I think that’s why so many men find seduction stimulating. It’s not just the need for sexual release, but the need to conquer something, if even a woman’s heart.

All across the world there are men fist fighting outside bars because they failed to attract a woman. Maybe this is why so few of the men I know who are great with women, are fighters. What need do they have to assault others, or engage in righteous combat, if they have the affection of beautiful women?

Plenty. It’s in our DNA.