“Beyond the towering pillars and sacred halls of our nation’s capital lies something greater than marble, granite and limestone. Monuments built by a nation to honour greatness. And for more than three decades, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has built some of its own, not with chisels or stone but through unforgettable moments beneath the brightest lights in combat sports.”
For a few minutes, a promotional video on the UFC’s official website continues in the same portentous and faintly ludicrous vein, elliding the monumental acts of America’s pioneers with the mercenary derring-do of professional cage fighters. “Some celebrate pure artistry,” the voiceover continues, over an action sequence in which someone is being kicked in the head. We are made to believe that the sport of UFC is the true expression of American freedom.
And who can now doubt this? No less an exalted venue than the South Lawn of the White House was host this past weekend to an event called “UFC Freedom 250”, a series of mixed martial arts (MMA) fights in a specially erected, 92 foot-high, fenced arena that was to celebrate the forthcoming 250th anniversary of American independence, and also an event far more resonant and significant – the 80th birthday of Donald Trump.
In 1996, the Republican senator John McCain likened UFC to “human cockfighting” and called it “barbaric”. The sport was banned in 36 states, and it was only as recently as 2016, when the state of New York legalised MMA contests, that it was practised in all 50 states.
And now, only 10 years later, UFC fighters were invited to punch, kick, knee and elbow opponents to both the body and the head on the White House lawn. A crowd of 4,000 attended the event, while millions paid to watch the show on cable TV. For some, however, it was symbolic of how low the cultural virtues of the United States have sunk.
For Trump, meanwhile, sitting at ringside, it was the most perfect way in which to mark his landmark birthday. He could bask in this extravagant display of machismo. A glorious, violent response to liberals everywhere, in which he was the star attraction, revelling in the military fly-pasts, the patriotic fervour, the pomp and ceremony, and, not least, the crowd chanting “USA, USA”.
Those who repudiate UFC as a legitimate sport are, in turn, regarded as ciphers of the snobbish, woke elite who are undermining the true spirit of America, and in so doing, Trump is able to solidify the divisions that he has sought to foment in US society. What a night he had. One of the fighters said of the US President after Sunday’s event that “it takes such a special person to have the balls to do something like this.”
No sport captures the character of these Trumpian times better than the gladiatorial nature of MMA. It is individualistic, hyper-masculine and relentlessly confrontational. There are no compromises, only winners and losers. It is what Trump has brought to domestic politics and international diplomacy. Politics as hand-to-hand combat, in which opponents are left humiliated.
Here, in the place where state dinners and garden parties are held, where turkeys are pardoned, and where astronauts and Nobel scientists are honoured, a gory spectacle is staged that is meant to reflect the tastes and interests of modern America. It is a depressing corruption of the higher ideals of dignity, service and civic duty that the White House should represent. Instead, it was another example of how one man can use the edifice of the state to his personal advantage, employing the “sacred halls” of American government for a commercially exploitative event whose appeal he knows will divide his nation.
This is what Trump has done to the good name and higher principles of the United States. Great nations are judged not only by their military might or fiscal muscle. They are also defined by their cultural aspirations, what they seek to put on a pedestal. America has traditionally projected its values through space exploration, technological development, cultural icons and a shared conviction that the country existed as a beacon to the world in pushing boundaries, strengthening democratic values and widening opportunity.
And so, the land that gave us astronaut Neil Armstrong, novelist F Scott Fitzgerald, painter Jackson Pollock and singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, now has men beating each other to a pulp in the shadow of the White House. That this is the image that the President wants to put before the world demonstrates just how egregiously American values have been degraded.
Hence then, the article about trump s degradation of america is complete was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump’s degradation of America is complete )
Also on site :