“Violence is the last
refuge of the incompetent.” ― Isaac Asimov
We have all found ourselves in the midst of self-proclaimed
experts. Tea ladies suddenly metamorphosize into political scientists during
election years, Chelsea Football Club fans are now suddenly in possession of
legacy and do not get me started on the recently concluded and grossly over-hyped Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight. It’s laughable how we are socialized to
so readily present our opinion even when ignorant of and sometimes wholly
oblivious to the topic at hand.
I have been pondering upon the Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight recently;
firstly as one in awe of the power of advertising for this one fight gripped
the world’s imagination for months if not years. I held debates with loved ones
both young and old all presenting differing opinions but united in
anticipation. However the end result was a worldwide groan of disappointment
prior to the tidal wave of anger and vitriol especially directed at Floyd Mayweather.
The communal ‘foaming in the mouth’
angry reaction to the boxing match struck me as an interesting reaction. I
wondered what people expected but was suddenly cognizant of how ignorant people
are of the relationship between business, entertainment and social engineering.
The fact that some thought that two crafty sportsmen with even craftier
handlers, staring down the barrel of retirement and having maneuvered themselves
into a contract worth more than the budgets of all forty six counties in Kenya
combined, would actually mete out violence on each other is as sad as it
is laughable.
Secondly comes the one hundred and fifty million dollar question
– “who the hell do you think you are?” No seriously, what makes one imagine
that two professional athletes would risk life and limb for their entertainment?
That supposition is in itself indicative of a widely accepted mental malady in
today’s society. Violence much like our ugali has become a staple diet much
consumed and sadly much loved. Take a moment to recall a time when your favorite
television series was not based on the partaking in violence or at least the
justification of violence. All the blockbuster movies in the last decade or so have
adhered to this mantra irrespective their genre. The latest but no so recent
addition is ‘interactive violence’ in the way of popular video games running on
extremely powerful hardware platforms like the PlayStation and Xbox. These interactive
and deeply immersive programs boost impressive technological advances like the
glory of high definition, carefully crafted interfaces, server farms which
allow you to partake in the gore with equally ‘special’ friends around the
world and reward systems bound to trigger addiction.
Now before the boxing fans come at me swinging (that is if
they can muster the fitness to swing), allow me state that I am not implying that
all partakers and consumers of violent and mature content are prone to violence.
Granted they are obviously attracted to violence but cannot be deemed to be
violent people. Remember we have seen far more violent generations like the crusaders, conquistadors, slave traders, inquisitors among other equally devilish lovers of death, who did not have PlayStations. The acceptance of and desensitization to violence
is clearly in the interest of powerful business entities as it makes for good
business. I wonder would our sisters gravitate to Olivier Pope with such gusto
had Scandal been about turning people to Christ? Clearly we are
either a generation which loves violence and mature themes or one that has been
taught to love violence, so much so that we would not only demand it but decry
the lack of it. However we must concede to the fact that violence is all around
us and features heavily on all media and interactive platforms. It is heavily
evangelized and easily accessible.
As a technologist I am constantly nagged by
two questions – is there a system or shadowy group of persons bent on
convincing us that violence is not only acceptable, but also enjoyable, and if
so to what end? Or are we simply violence junkies in need of a steady diet of blood
and gore and mature themes, and if so how did this come about? Either way it is
sad to see such impressive technologies working in concert to create and disseminate
alarming and often outright disgusting levels of violence.
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