“So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners,” Streep said as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award. “And if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
With all due respect to Meryll Streep, speaking of multi-culturalism while bashing an entire culture of the fastest growing sport in the ‘world’, is quite anti-liberal in itself and counter-productive to her cause.
….And she couldn’t have been more wrong about MMA. If anything, Mixed Martial Arts may actually be the truest form of Art.
Fighting pre-dates any form of expression (or conventional forms of art). Unlike other arts, entertainment or ‘imitations of life’, MMA may be the only ‘real’ kind of expression that is pure in essence. In simple words – it’s as unreal as it gets, and it requires skill and talent.
It is the art of mastering more than the vessel (which you consider your body), it is the process of taming the restless mind and the most primordial basics of human nature – fear, pain, violence, anger, pride, ego; The opposite: bravery, pleasure, gentleness, happiness; modesty, timidity. These are the characteristics that build a human being, yet they are also the things that can break one. An imbalance of either side leads to disproportionality, manifesting itself in ways that may be harmful to the individual or the society as a whole.
To attain the fine line between happiness and sadness requires a controlled environment that challenges both – only when you’ve tested the things that bring you pleasure or pain, do you understand the important of either. MMA is the art of self-mastery, of taming the mind and body.
MMA is a process that has taken centuries to realize – it is the truest testing ground of your art and meddle. You compete, challenge and conquer and in defeat you dare, accept, and rebuild. It is a metaphor to life.
All this being said, we are absolutely certain that if the legendary actress ever stepped onto a Jiu-Jutsu mat, the octagon or a boxing ring, she would realize that her world of empathic, just, and civil multi-cultured societies only exists there. She would have realized that Mixed Martial Arts does not see in color, gender, race, religion, or age; all she would find are highly charged, passionate and driven individuals training together to improve themselves and their quality of living – to master the balance between mind and body.
MMA may appear violent but there is violence everywhere in the world – some unjust, and some necessary. If anything, Martial Arts teaches you one thing, it’s that we all bleed red and that. Under the surface the difference is literally skin deep, and the ones who realize this the most are the Mixed Martial Artists. If she ever watched any MMA, she would realize the melting pot it truly is.
One must forgive Meryll Streep for her opinion. She is a great artist but she is not well informed about MMA to draw any conclusions. RDX’s opinion that MMA ‘IS AN ART’ and that our athletes, our fighters and our icons are nothing short of artists themselves. While a ‘body’ is needed to produce art – our bodies itself are an Art.
In conclusion – how about we offer Meryll Streep an invitation to a Jiu-Jutsu class or something? We’re certain she’ll be singing a different tune after she’s learned to throw a punch, shoot for a double-leg or lock in a triangle choke.
RDX Sport – Giant Inside
