Last Dude Standing Dec 15, 2007 - 09:19 AM
I used to confuse the title of the show "Last One Standing" for "Last Man Standing." I guess the producers of the show about western guys getting beat up by indigenous tribespeople thought "Last MAN Standing" was sexist, even though there are only guys in the show, three Brits and three Yanks. Last episode had Corey killing a Guinea pig with his bare hands. Later, he refuses (along with Black man Brad) to be whipped as part of the sort of ceremony of respect and contrition to the mountains. Now, I fully understand Brad, being black, not allowing himself to be whipped. His explanation of how he comes from a culture of people who were whipped as part of the subjugation of a people rings valid to me. But Corey refuses because he doesn't want to take part in violence. Violence? Jesus man, you just wrung the neck of a poor defenseless Guinea Pig! It was freaking cute, and you bravely took its head in your hands and made it see a view it wasn't intended by nature to see! How was that not violent, but getting whipped was? Isn't this show, just a teensy bit, about violence? These games of strength and endurance seems to me to be a replacement for war, or to divert mens energies into more positive channels than, say, cannibalizing each other. It's all in gory fun, isn't it? Fight culture, like UFC and boxing before it, has gotten a lot of heated exchanges about sanctioned violence. There's some truth to that - but what of it? The people who choose to go into those sports (or football, or wrestling, or whatever) choose to do so - because it's fun. And a skilled art. It's not like we're watching televised serial killing, or something. All participants want to take part in something that is a challenge, with a possible win that makes men feel bigger than themselves - if only for a brief moment. The interesting aspect of this show is watching "civilized" western men take part in native games and fights where the indigenous people have no qualms about what they are about to take part in, no questions of morality or if it is the right thing to do. It is ingrained as part of their culture and they grow up with the fact that it is right to beat the brains out of their competitor, or grind them into the sweat dampened dust of their superior endurance and grit. You have to wonder what it's like to have no qualms about your life, no moral dillemas. Just a well- trod path to your existence. Perhaps that's an oversimplification coming from a western culture kind of guy - and it most likely is. I'm sure that indigenous people have their moral canundrums and questions of "Is this the right thing to do?" I mean we have all emerged from this kind of existence, so questionings and crossroads must have come up to create the life we have now. And that's what makes it interesting to watch - the clash and insights that occur when confronted with something different, almost alien in viewpoint to one's own. That's good, that's great television!
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