...for, though the instinct to fight and to kill is surely qualified by one's personal courage, the instinct to watch others fight and kill is evidently inborn. When the boxing fan shouts, 'Kill him! Kill him!' he is betraying no peculiar pathology or quirk but asserting his common humanity and his kinship, however distant, with the thousands upon thousands of spectators who crowded into the Roman amphitheaters to see gladiators fight to the death.
In Joyce Carol Oates' book "On Boxing," she explores the deep-seated impulses that drive human behavior, particularly in the context of violence and combat sports. She suggests that while the willingness to engage in physical confrontations can depend on individual bravery, the desire to witness such spectacles is innate to humanity. This observation implies that our fascination with violence is not a recent development, but a fundamental aspect of our nature, echoing back to ancient times when crowds gathered to cheer on gladiators.
Oates illustrates this idea through the example of boxing fans, who vocally express their eagerness for brutal outcomes during matches. Their chants of "Kill him! Kill him!" are not indicative of a psychological abnormality but rather a reflection of shared human instincts that connect us to our ancestral past. This relationship between spectator and violence reveals the continuity of human behavior throughout history, as the thrill of witnessing combat persists in today's society just as it did in the arenas of ancient Rome.
