Slashdot Mirror
Techie Fight Clubs Springing Up
Browncoat writes "USAToday reports a new phenomenon hitting some of the cubicles of Silicon Valley. It seems that engineers and developers previously confined to sitting in front of their computers are getting their anger out the healthy way: by pummeling each other. From the article 'Inspired by the 1999 film Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, underground bare-knuckle brawling clubs have sprung up across the country as a way for desk jockeys and disgruntled youths to vent their frustrations and prove themselves. "This is as close as you can get to a real fight, even though I've never been in one," the soft-spoken Siou said.'"
Aside from which, I loved how they worked in this:
Earlier this month in Arlington, Texas, a high school student who didn't want to participate was beaten so badly that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken vertebrae. Six teenagers were arrested after DVDs of the fight appeared for sale online.
So exactly when did "getting your ass kicked by a bunch of jerks" turn into being "an unwilling Fight Club participant"? I suppose next we'll be hearing about how Ken Lay and company were actually just repeating what they learned by watching "Wall Street" at the executive team-building offsite? Or how the well-abused Zonk and ScuttleMonkey voodoo dolls on my desk are actually just a result of my having seen part of "The Craft" one time on HBO?
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Doesn't this article violate the first and second rules of fight club?
The teams I've been on have always handled stress by Quake/Unreal Tournament/etc. deathmatching. What's the appeal of brawling? Same thrill of victory, longer-lasting agony of defeat.
No one saw this coming. No one.
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Is this fact, or just poor reporting?
Registered Linux user #421033
This doesn't worry me much... yet. I mean, transgressional fiction was bound to come true at some point. People tend to break out of the cube. What worries me is that this might be a trend in fiction influencing reality. If Patrick Batemans start cropping up all over the place then we have a problem.
Hitting someone with a frying pan? What fool would take that?
Using your fists on someone
But using a blunt object? If you're anything other than a spaz, you'll crush a few ribs the first time you connect. Then the fights over.
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Dear Michael Messner,
Please accept this large steaming cup of shut the hell up.
Sincerely,
BigTanGringo
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
Anyway, my favorite part is the two professors eagerly spouting theories about "fight clubs" as though they'd ever heard of this before the USA Today reporter came calling.
No, my real favorite part is:
Fast forward to Marital Fight Club...What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Hopefully we can someday return to the world where none of thoseexisted, and men never fought each other.
His name is Linus Torvalds.
His name is Linus Torvalds.
Yes, buy things like the Fight Club DVD, you sheep. Some people, if worried about excessive consumerism, would stop buying shit.
Videogames. Always videogames. I'm surprised he hasn't blamed myspace.
"You get to be a superhero for a night," Klimanis said. "We have to go to work every day. We're constantly told to buy things we don't need, and just for a couple hours we have the freedom to do what we want to do."
And that is beating each other up? Idiots...
bash$
Look at the position of the leg with regards to the arm.
If it was a straight in kick, his leg would be tangled up with his opponent's hand.
If it was a side kick, his leg would be connecting with his opponent's shoulder. Look how his kicking foot is outside of both their bodies.
10 REM Nerd Fight Club
20 REM packetmon
30 FOR X=10 TO 1 STEP -1
40 PRINT X;"Oh yea";
50 IF X<>1 THEN PRINT "!";
60 PRINT "take that,";X;"jackass";
70 IF X<>1 THEN PRINT "!";
80 PRINT "give in!"
90 NEXT
Infiltrated dot Net
I am sick to death of Fight Club. People talking about it, [...]
I take it most people didn't pay attention when they were told the first and second rules.
"I challenged the entire QA department to a Bat Leth contest. They will trouble us no longer."
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
If you got "the solution to our problems is kicking each other" from Fight Club the movie, then you must have only watched the 1st 1/2 of the movie.
Extremists misinterpreting literature for ideology is hardly new, though. These people are hitting each other with heavy metal objects, they are probably addicted to the body's painkillers or the feeling their brain makes while it is being made retarded.
Ok, as someone who *has* been in more than my fair share of fights, studied martial arts, etc, I'm confused by this to a certain degree. Not by the fight clubs, just the news story. I haven't had to use my martial arts skills in anger or self defense, because my insturctor taught self respect and that first rule: the best way to not get hurt by a punch is to not get hit by it. That means he focused on avoiding blows, not blocking them, but it also means he focused on avoiding fights in the first place. Anyway.
The reporter is making these folks out to sound like crazies.... They aren't. They are men frustrated by their daily lives. I can understand this desire to vent physical frustration in a very real way. I learned that I don't need to hit anyone in order to do that, just pratice the martial arts forms I have learned. That is either not something these guys have tried, or found to be satisfactory. That's fine, and as long as they all agree to what they are doing, have at.
He focuses on one guy at the end who is making... questionable choices, certainly from how they where presented. Married later in life (than social norms, mind, for all that's worth), choosing to go to this fight club instead of taking the time out to be with his wife, on their first anniversary, for a very important event in her life. Talking about how tough it makes him feel... sounds like he's got other issues to me. Sounds like the writer is trying to focus on that.
Oh, and the trying to link teen violence to this stuff, and childhood media exposure? That's just poor reporting, and poor taste.
I'm modding this story -3 troll.
I'd have to agree. Fight Club is easily one of my favorite movies and Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favorite authors. I liked the book/movie for a lot of reasons other then the actual "fight club". Even still when I was in college (RPI) as a freshmen one of my buddies told me one day that some guys in his dorm started a fight club... I didn't believe him till he took me down there and I watched two clumsy nerds slap each other for 5 minutes before getting tired and reaching for their inhalers. This was years ago now... 2000 I believe. Pretty stupid if you ask me, if you want to fight people take a boxing or martial arts class...
Collector's Edition
...is that the themes in the book / movie really hit home for a lot of people. Sitting back in your chair laughing at the idiots may be fun for the armchair warriors at large, but not everyone has really been tested and that was one of the core themes FC - how do you know what you've got if you never put it to the test? How do you know how you'll react to a fight when you've never been in one? How can you prove you've really pushed yourself to the limit without scars to show for it?
And talk about a way to find out - if it's either kick some tail or get yours kicked in for you, I think that almost everyone would go into a full on a$$ kicking mode. At that point, it's the better man that wins but either way you're gonna push yourself harder than posting comments on a web site.
For the office warrior who never got into a fight in his life, I can easily see this as thrilling beyond compare.
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, and there should probably be some safeguards put into this as even the UFC has rounds and referees to stop fights when it's clear that 1 person is taking too much of a beating, but I get it.
I used to like Star Trek until I read about the ladies that are into this: http://www.thyla.com/fan-art.html
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
Exclusive pictures from one of the fights.
Maybe not
...you do not talk about fight-like-a-girl club. For obvious reasons.
Procrastination Man strikes again!
You are right that fist to skull contact is more likely to result in a broken hand. But orbital bones can certainly break under contact with elbow (as sometimes happens in basketball games).
The skull is NOT impenetrable. A properly swung baseball bat can easily penetrate it. More to the point, a properly swung staff or wooden sword can do the job as well. It can most certainly be accomplished with a hammer, but you'd have to be VERY skilled with a frying pan (though you could certainly kill with blunt force).
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/0
For the record, one punch can CERTAINLY kill if the person is hit in the correct way. The fact that you have not perished yet does not constitute evidence.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Sorry, "Fight Club" was about rebellion and self realization. Same thing with another movie of that time "American Beauty".
The protaginist (he has no name) is a bitch office worker who subconsciously develops an aggressive persona that manifests itself when he "sleeps". There was no homo-sexuality in the film. The only person who got fucked was Marla. The fact that men were hugging in a testicle cancer support group is meant to be farscicle.
Quit projecting.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
> ok ok... s/hands/penis/ ...better?
I took your advice and began coding with my penis instead of my hands. Everyone in my office is avoiding my cubicle now. On the plus side, I finally got other people to stop using my keyboard.
Solomon
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
I don't disagree, really. I'm not saying this is a healthy outlet, just that it's healthier than some of the alternatives, such as taking out these destructive tendancies on people who *didn't* ask to be involved. TFA didn't provide much detail.
As for techies being smarter than the majority? Not really. They are more capable of more focused, dedicated tasks. They are able to expend all their energies concentrating on a singular task. This makes them ideal for jobs where this is required. Coding is one of them. Design in general, really. You've got to be completely dedicated to truely get something right. Or even half right. That doesn't, inherantly, make someone smarter. I've met some brick stupid techies.
As far as the 'evil' bit? I agree. It's why I'm not involved in corporate americ (or any other nation's version of same) any longer, and why I personally find this rather needless, mindless, and sad. But I can't just step in and say 'that person is doing something stupid' without justification, because frankly, I tell people who do that to me off, and go on with my life. And I'm not really intrested in posting such justification on, ya know, slashdot. I mean, c'mon. Slashdot. The majority of the people reading this have already made up their minds anyway.
But it's all starting to make sense now, isn't it. The rivalry between Spock and McCoy for Kirk's affections. The older queen bitchiness of McCoy, who feels threatened by the younger Spock. (And now you start wondering about McCoy's nickname, "Bones".)
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.