Fighting Fit?

I've just watched a clip a friend posted on their Facebook feed from a page called The Fight Archive.

Make no mistake folks, I love a good fight. As a matter of fact, watching a good scrap or a sparring bout, or being in the ring myself has to be up there as one of favourite things to do.
The intensity, the passion, the power, technique and skill, speed - there's a real kind of purity that comes from combat; a true test of one's dedication and discipline. It's exhilarating.

But something about this particular clip really put me off. It was titled "Bully versus Nerd - Nerd lands fifty seven punches!!" As a martial artist, if I hear that someone landed fifty seven punches, I'm definitely intrigued. I'd expect to see an Ip-Man style kung-fu beat down on someone who picked on the wrong guy. That wasn't what I got. At all.

See, the fact that this particular clip was filmed in the first place made me initially think it was probably staged, but there was something about the raw emotion in the video that hit far too close to home.

I mentioned in my previous blog that I was never one of the popular kids in school. It would be fair to say I was very, very close to the bottom of the school social ladder, by virtue of my intense geekiness. A skinny ginger kid who was properly crap at sports was never going to do well for themselves in a high - school situation. That's all very much squared away now, thanks.

I'm bringing up my own experiences here because the kid in this video was looked to have been tormented on a regular basis. Now, I don't know why the bully thought it would be fun to have his buddy film their latest antagonising efforts, but you can only push someone so far before they snap (trust me on this one). That was exactly what happened here, after pushing this kid around incessantly and calling him a few names they end up in a scuffle.

The victim manages to somehow get the upper hand on the bully (who's fat as fuck, it's worth pointing out. Stones and glass houses come to mind.) and then he just unleashes. I'm guessing years of pent up fury and frustration went into the onslaught that followed. He's on top of the other kid, and he's throwing right after left directly at his opponent's head. 

He then screams: "Do you want to leave me alone now?! Are you gonna leave me alone?!"

By this point, the bully is just desperately trying to guard his head. He's not doing a very good job. The video ends abruptly after our 'Nerd' shouts: "Have you learnt your lesson?".

My question is this: what are we supposed to take from this as an audience? It wasn't an enjoyable fight to watch in the slightest. Is the idea here for me to champion our nerdy hero who just annihilated the guy that was picking on him? Because he didn't look relieved in the slightest. Something about the way he says: "Are you gonna leave me alone?!" tells me that he crossed a line he never hoped to. There wasn't any technique or skill in his attack (and be under no illusions here; it was very much an attack), it was just raw emotion sending a message in the most dramatic and violent manner possible.

I'm not vouching for the bully here, by any means -  my point is that the [former] bullied guy ended up decimating this other kid, but it was in no way a decisive victory for victims of bullying the world over. I saw a young guy snap under the straw that broke his back, and in his voice I heard something that told me he'd crossed a line I don't think he'd ever wanted to cross.

Yes, I'm a fighter. Contrary to what many people may take that to mean, I absolutely do NOT enjoy hurting other people, nor do I enjoy seeing others get hurt. Standing up to bullies is sometimes necessary and sometimes even good. But that isn't always the case. The MO of a bully is provocation, desperately trying anything and everything to get some kind of reaction from their victims. To word it another way; a bully is someone who is trying to get you to compromise your own self.

That's what I saw in this video: a kid who compromised what he believed about the world. 'Live and let live,' 'Do unto others as you would have done upon yourself,' 'Don't hurt anyone.' Pick your cliché. The guy being picked on was upset because it had come down to him beating the ever-loving shit out of his bully; and he regretted every single punch. 

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. We all know that bullying is not funny. It's the last resort of people who lack the proper ability to express themselves as a cooperative, productive human being. Don't get me wrong; there's always that grim satisfaction when some asshole gets their just desserts, but this video borders on gratuitous. How am I supposed to react to that?

I suppose my intention here is nothing more than awareness, with a request that readers question their reactions to this particular clip. Regardless of its validity, is 'Nerd landing 57 hits on Bully' something to be celebrated as an act of bravery? Because that's not what I saw. Or is this simply a shock-tactics video, hoping to catch a few bloggers hook, line and sinker?