Life imitating phone sex?

I noticed an obituary in Wednesday's newspaper

Michael Quarry, 55; lost light-heavyweight title fight

By Beth Harris
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES - Michael Quarry, the younger brother of hard-punching heavyweight Jerry Quarry and a contender in his own right for the light heavyweight title, has died...at...an assisted living facility.

"He started not being able to talk or walk three months ago," (his sister) said Monday.

She gave the cause of death as pugilistic dementia, the same disease that had turned Jerry Quarry into a confused, childlike man before he died at 53 in 1999.

"His brain was atrophying in many areas," said his brother-in-law..."

Does any of this ring a bell?

I've talked to my boys over and over again about aggressive male competitive behavior, showing you how males of various species behave in exactly the same way. The example of the mountain goats we see in documentaries comes to mind... Butting their heads against each other, causing each other brain damage or killing themselves. For what? The (male) announcer will tell you that they are competing for the attentions of females. Of course, the females don't care. They aren't there, are they? No, they are off raising the next generation.

A scientific study has shown that human males who perform risky behaviors (bungee jumping was the one in this study) will tell you that they are doing it to impress women. Bingo. Exactly the same behavior. In fact, I started to mention this to a caller, and he immediately told me he did bungee jumping. I couldn't resist, and I asked him why. He told me it was to impress women. Well, doh. It's a no-brainer, literally, because it's a behavior that is not part of the conscious mind. The women who they spoke to in the study were, of course, not impressed. They thought it was a really stupid thing to do.

So what's the real purpose of these risky behaviors? Behaviors are inherited, after all. This behavior would not have been inherited if not for the fact that it gave some advantage to the individuals that possessed it.

The purpose is this: they are voluntarily thinning themselves out of the herd, and the biggest and most brutish individual survives to pass on his genes to his descendents.

Now there may be a major advantage to this if you are the biggest, baddest mountain goat. But in modern society, there is no advantage to being big and brutish and dumb. Males are still cavemen, adapted best to fighting, to hunting, with their bare hands and with rocks and sticks.

Boxing is the sport that best exemplifies this in all regards. Unlike bungee jumping, which is a stunt, it is a full sport, a way of life. And unlike bungee jumping, which for all the thrills and apparent risk involved, is basically safe, the participants in the sport of boxing are causing each others brain damage and long-term, killing themselves. And for what? They are doing it for competitive glory, aggressive competition being an end in itself.

They are thinning themselves out of the herd. But don't worry, there are plenty more cavemen where they came from.