Veneers

Every once in a while, you stumble on a story that makes you wonder if Hobbes was right. I remember the first such story I encountered, probably about twenty years ago. As a kid I read the newspaper every day. My interest began with the comics, sparked onto the horoscopes and advice columns, then caught enough oxygen to fan across the entire paper like a scrubland fire.

This incident caught my attention when I was in fourth or fifth grade and blew my little mind. I wish I could link it, but this was an Orlando Sentinel article from twenty years ago.

Anyway, you'll have to trust my memory (a dicey proposition, I know). The facts are pretty simple though: one group of Central Florida golfers (Tribe A) tried to play through the hole being used by an earlier group (Tribe B). Tribe B took offense, words were exchanged, and the two groups attacked each other. One of the men hit another with a golf club. The club broke, which might have deterred a lesser man but not this guy. He then used the broken golf club to stab his opponent repeatedly. Nobody died but the stab victim went to the hospital. The rest, of course, went to jail.

I must've read that article a hundred times, laughing harder and harder with each pass. Golf was supposed to be this civilized endeavor, the hobby of refinement and here were these bruisers going at each other like a Five Points street brawl.

The incident didn't just provide humor for me. It was one of those emblematic stories of my childhood, a frank bit of evidence that some people--no matter how they dress or act--are animals. Maybe more than some, I don't know. Ask me on a good day and I'll say they're in the minority. On a bad day I'll tell you it's everyone.

I'm reminded of this because of a recent event in Brazil, which you may have heard about. If you haven't, here's the link. Every part of this story is bad. Each step of the way, you think "This can't get worse" and yet it does...right up until the gory finish: a blood-splattered triumph like the end of an Assyrian siege.

I realize that they take soccer, er, futbol, very seriously down there but this is shocking nonetheless. It's harsh evidence that the social contract is frail, that civilization is a thin enamel easily scrapped away by the slightest provocation.

There is a counter argument, of course. Rousseau would argue childhood is nasty and competitive, turning docile creatures into monsters. He would argue society is the real source of savagery, driving people to do the things they do.
 
I won't pretend to have an answer. Even if I did, I'd probably disagree with it tomorrow. And that answer would probably be depressing as well, which leaves me with no choice but to end this post with a picture of Oolong the Pancake Rabbit: