Aggressive sports - what is next?

MMA - Mix Martial Arts - a new fastly growing kind of sport. People almost kill each other in the cage. Blood, broken bones, the faces full of frustration and pain. These all is what MMA is about, though even here is also the great money is involved. But what makes people risk their health and even life on the ring? I think that there is something about people's emotions and psychology, too.

To my mind, the MMA fighters look for some new feelings when they go to fight in the cage. They know that there is the real danger ahead - and this only makes them continue. Why? Just because they want to check what is the level of their strength. In most cases they simply want to prove themselves something really important - they want to prove themselves that they are the best and can control the situation - if not in their real life, than at least on the ring.

The other reason for the MMA fighters to become such, is their aggression and anger which is multiplied on some inner feeling of dissatisfaction - this is what really leads anyone to showing all these feelings in the cage: when there is the only other human being in front of you, and he is your enemy: you are in the same conditions - this gives you the confidence - and the only thing left - is to fight. Fight until your victory, or at least fight with the greatest devotion, to prevent the disappointment in yourself.

So, if such an aggressive sport as MMA is becoming more and more popular now - what is going to be next? Probably, people will invent the sport in which other people will become the alive targets for shooting? Or they may have to swim away from the sharks in a huge tank? And all the spectators will applause, standing, and watching the loser of the game dying, just as today they do, when see the first blood on the ring? who knows for sure, what is going to happen in just a decade, just a year. All in all, think over it. And make Your own decision: if you want to cheer for the death; if You want to become a victim of the next cruel game the humankind may create for fun, or if You want to live in peace and harmony with the surrounding world and with each other.

The Game

Our life is the game. We all live in different communities; we are all influenced by various people, by those who are around us. Though even we have some same codes of morals in our being, there is still something that makes the rules, we live by, different: our cultural values, our traditions and attitudes towards various issues in a particular society, we grow up in. There is always some only aspect which creates the difference.  And this aspect makes our game.

 

People are created for adjusting. Every of us can get used to any conditions the Life has prepared. It only takes some time to get the things on the right places. However, when You start feeling comfortable exactly in this place, exactly in this circle of socialization, in this culture, and You suddenly have to change it all - how does it work? We could watch it while making an experiment in the class.

 

According to the teacher's experiment, the class was divided into 3 groups. We had to play a card game, the rules to which were showed on the separate sheets of paper for each single group.

At first we were just playing inside our "mini-communities" or "mini-cultures" - which I mean the student groups. We could talk, and we played for kind of "treats". Then we continued our game, but in the silence: everyone could only use gestures or drawings to explain anything. As far, as we all knew the rules of the game, we felt rather convenient while continuing playing. However, the next challenge was to switch the group for each "culture's" member, so that the only one original player of a group stayed in the same conditions, playing according to the original rules of his/her group. After switching we continued playing in silence. And starting with this point, some issues started to appear: the "freshmen" in each particular group started getting frustrated, upset and from time to time even got mad. They had no understanding about what was going on in their new "mini-culture". So, what was happening, You may ask? The trick was that the teacher had made the totally same regulations for the game for all the groups of students. All the rules were exactly identical. All, except the only one.

 

So, the teacher created the same conditions for all the "mini-societies", and only made a small different one for each group. And not being able to speak, people became captured by the situation. They were lost in the new "culture", and, moreover, they could not ask anyone for help. New people in a "society" were not prepared for this challenge; this aspect showed us this way the adjustment of the humans to the rules of a new community; it shows us the period of so called "cultural shock" - the period of adaptation to a new society, a new culture.

 

All in all,  playing this game, we could find out that our life in this world seems really quite the same somehow. Every culture has its own specialties, and every society has something that makes it identity. And You should remember that "when in Rome, do as Romans do". Use Your adjusting and communicative skills to feel comfortable in a new circle of people. Remember the rules of the place You are from, but respect the traditions of the place You stay in. Play Your game confidently, control the situation and be the winner in this Life.

 

100% American culture?

 

USA. The mixture of nationalities. The mixture of customs and traditions. Variety of people, their views and attitudes. American nation is full of contrasts, and this is beautiful. People are so different in many ways: language, ideas, religion, beliefs and what not. However, at the same time, there are some values to be shared in the American society, such as personal independence, full individualism, modernism and some other points in common. Though even this makes a single whole and connects people in some way, does it make the US culture as it is? And does totally American culture exist itself at all?

To my mind, there is something invisible that makes American nation really American. It can be mostly explored by watching and analyzing people's everyday routine. Why? Just because usually things we do daily demonstrate a lot of our values and attitudes. People in the USA always try to show their full independence, in every action. And they value their individual responsibility really much. For example, You can notice it while the school process: students get most of their assignment to do on their own, and even helping each other counts as cheating, so it is forbidden. Moreover, though individual work is required by teachers, it is both strongly supported by students! Sometimes even a friend of Yours may think it is rude of You to ask him/her for help with Your homework! So, be prepared for this when You come to an American school to study.

Among other shared values in the culture of USA are modernism, religiosity, consumerism, responsibility. Being punctual is another kind of "value". For Americans it is better to be earlier for 5 minutes for a meeting then even to be on time. Being late is compared to impoliteness, and may make a person who has being waiting even for a couple minutes very upset, or even mad about You. So, try Your best to be on time everywhere and in every situation.

However, on the other hand, USA is compared to the "Melting Pot" of the world. This is so because United States, as a country, represents such a great amount of various cultures and people that it itself become a single "multicultural whole". And I think that this factor makes the difference. To my mind, USA is the place of contrasts, opposites, multiculturalism. This is the country of American dream, of the new opportunities; country of immigrants. Everyone, coming here, has the hope for better existence. The United States is like a magnet for absolutely different persons. It absorbs all the cultural aspects from its every citizen, and mix them into the one great whole: American Culture. Though it is up to You to come here and decide for Yourself: is it a 100% "made in the USA or not".