On Fighting

Have you ever gotten into a fight?

Last week, a fight between a homeless 30-year-old man and a 24-year-old rider on the New York City ended up with the 30 year-old man dead. The homeless man who was put into a rear naked choke by the subway passenger and choked to death on a Manhattan train. Questions are being raised as to whether the man's death was a case of self-defense or a criminal act.

This story of self-defense on the subway managed to make national news and go viral on Twitter even though only 5% of Americans take public transportation, vs 95% that drive to work. Most Americans are likely to die in a traffic accident on the way to work then be assaulted on public transportation.

I’m not surprised to learn that the person who did this, Daniel Penny, was an ex-marine who is largely unemployed and drifting for two years after his service ended. He didn’t have a career and didn’t have a corporate job. Many people riding the NYC subway at 5pm are in this group. I was. I am not going to fight anyone unless they are physically attacking me first and I have no other choice. Ever. For good reason. I have a lot to lose.

But that wasn’t always the case. Casual fist-fighting was done by all classes in America until very recently.

The Middle Class Does Not Fight Anymore

If you are in the middle class and have a job or career you are risking your entire life by getting into a fight for two reasons. The first is the other person may have a gun. When I am in America, I feel the threat of the gun exists in the air. When I am in Europe, that doesn’t exist.

The second is you’re going to get arrested. You’ll be charged with a felony and it will be impossible to find another corporate job again and your wife/gf may leave you. You may have gotten away with it in the 1970s or 80s when you worked for one company your entire life. There could be loyalty there. But that era is gone. You’re supposed to be job hopping and getting raises and promotions. You are a “companies” person.

This has crept into sports as well, which have always been tolerant of athletes who break the law. That’s changing. Players do not even fight in Hockey anymore

The American justice system is so efficient now that it deters this corporate class from getting involved in any street crime. This includes mutual combat or bar fights which don’t have a “victim”. It’s no surprise that repeat offenders comprise the vast majority of crimes. You’re either part of the criminal class or you are part of this middle class economy where you can’t break the law. This is a recent phenomenon. The middle class used to get in street fights. That’s changed.

School fights have always been common. School is like a prison or a small village. If you get bullied your reputation is ruined because you have to see the same crowd year after year. You have to fight to protect your reputation or you lose your standing.

I went to a middle class high school and I got into a fight. That’s rare now. You’ll be suspended from school and it may impact your future prospects. High School students who have been in a physical fight has HALVED in the last few decades. I am willing to be the half that stopped fighting are from the middle class.

You saw this vanishing piece America during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court. They brought up how Police questioned him in 1985 after being involved in a bar fight. In the 70s, 80s and ’90s, when Yale graduate Kavanaugh was involved in his own altercation, fighting in bars by the middle class was a normal event. No big deal. This led to a slew of tweets by mostly older middle class and successful guys bragging about being in bar fights as well. Not something you hear about anymore.

Street fighting is now mostly a low class thing only. The middle class is out of that game. If you look at the most popular fight video accounts on Twitter you’ll see that pattern.

In This Newsletter

1) The Phone Camera: Altercations still exist in society. We are social animals that engage in confrontation. But we don’t fight anymore. The camera in your phone has replaced fighting. The camera is a tool for reestablishing civil/ethical behavior at this point. What are the implications?

2) The rise of white collar MMA: the middle class will not fight in the streets but they are training to fight at Muay Thai/BJJ or MMA gyms like the European aristocrats that came before them. Even celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, Tom Hardy and Russell Brand are involved.

2) Are We Made to Punch? I’ll review the literature on how our bodies evolved to describe the most efficient way to fight.

The Phone Camera

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