Raw, Unforgiven, No Way Out

Fresh out of a deep mid-afternoon slumber, I find my brother playing WWE: Smackdown Vs Raw 2008. While I watch him with sleepy eyes, I wonder what pleasure people take in literally beating others to pulp, watching them writhe in agony on the blood-splattered floor and burying them alive (he is playing with The Undertaker). The more violent the game gets, the more gratification he seems to draw from it.

I have always been one to avoid any sort of conflict, physical or otherwise. I have never witnessed any 'confrontations' and I have NO idea how I would react in a 'situation' if, say hypothetically, I was thrust into one. I have since childhood been a pacifist (I use euphemism here for the words others use - mainly along the lines of 'pussy'). But I cannot ignore the fact that if everyone just thought the same way, a lot of the problems in this world would be non-existent.

I don't claim to be able to change the world or bring global peace and end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm just one tiny insignificant person among the 'great scheme of things', albeit one who believes in idealism, but who also despises violence when it's uncalled for. My nine year old cousin, for one, is positively obsessed with WWE (which, in the first place, I believe is a sham!) and I myself have seen the effects of the ideas it promotes. While the so-called 'wrestlers' just put on pretences of 'wrestling', they influence millions of kids and adults alike around the world to resort to the worst when faced with altercation. I use him as just an example, and I'm sure he's going to grow up to have a perfectly normal life, but that is also how gun-wielding criminals are born!

I believe in the words 'to each his own'. As a rule, I don't judge (or at least try my best not to), but I despise violence when it is uncalled for. It's insensible, destructive and an obvious hindrance to every step taken towards 'global peace', todays' equivalent to the medieval alchemists' quest for wisdom and immortality.