The challenge of the daffodils

The Challenge

With great media hype two of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg challenged each other to a mixed martial arts match. They chose the Flavian amphitheater, one of the world's most famous monuments, the Roman Colosseum, for the unlikely fight: not a cage in Las Vegas, but the symbol of a civilization.

Both quickly enriched by the digital revolution, they believe they can afford any whim not by virtue of athletic prowess, but by virtue of boundless wealth. It is unlikely that the event will take place, and if it ever does, it will not be held according to the canonical rules of martial arts; if anything, it will be merely an exhibition with gigantic economic interests.

The noble motivation is to raise funds for charitable purposes for Italian children's hospitals, according to other sources for unspecified war veterans, perhaps centurions of the Roman Empire. To the U.S. subculture, Italy and its monumental heritage are a playground for bored rich people who can afford to rent the sports facility. To date, it is not known what the motivations for the challenge are: deciding who is the richest of the realm, a disputed girlfriend, settling old scores between technocrats.

The fight

The habit of living in virtual reality, itself an oxymoron, makes the two cheerful plutocrats forget that combat is a sacred act, as it involves pain and toil, fear and suffering. A sacrificium, sacred act, the struggle against one's limitations embodied in the person of the opponent, the traditional concept of the Great Holy War. An eternal principle that is not bought by the great capital accumulated through the collective hypnosis of social networks.

This virtual challenge, as much as the activities of the two pseudo-combatants, exposes the true aspect of the mercantile soul of those who think they buy everything with money. In reality, the challengers can never have with their dollars the dignity and courage of real fighters, whether the match is made or not. In the society of appearing, it is more effective the news than the event itself; announcing any event beyond its actual realization makes one visible.

The pathology of spectacularization

Guy Debord back in 1967 had described the society of images as a mystification of reality, a production requirement of capitalism, where the spectacle is "the inversion of life." According to the Marxist philosopher the spectacle is the means and the end of production, in fact it takes the place of reality and like any artifice generates alienation - we add that we have a vision far removed from Marxist economism.

Replacing reality with a representation of it is a sign of narcissistic personality disorder, a pathology that is the child of the spiritual emptiness that drives one to play a part in order to make sense of life. Playing gladiators without knowing the pathos of the fight, the victory over the spirit of self-preservation and fear that a true fighter must face.

The profit mentality as the ultimate goal of existence hides in the drive for accumulation the desire for immortality, the overcoming of the fear of death through capital accretion. In the nurturing society, money is not a medium of exchange, but pathologically defines identity: one does not count for what one is, but for what one has.

Social narcissism

The high media visibility of the hypothetical mixed martial arts match between Zukerberg and Musk, is not a real sporting event, what in the sacred meaning of sport was called Athlon, or test. The difference in age, weight, and experience make the fight very little credible, which even if it is actually accomplished can have at best the dignity of a wrestling show.

Narcissism feeds on these fictions, the spectacle does not have a purely economic function, but builds the fantastic character who wants to be admired and placed at the center of attention. Everything that makes a spectacle fills the existential void, everything possible is photographed, from food to romantic relationships, to make it public in social networks, modern factories of demented myths.

Two plutocrats, who have everything one could want with media overexposure, appease the narcissistic need to appear, to really be there beyond material goods. There is no heroic spirit that we can still find in sweat-stinking gyms, in bloodstained rings, and not in the display of those who have everything and fear disappearing into thin air. Death detaches from the assets that are not carried to the grave, but not the value that passes to eternity.

This time the best does not win, the richest wins.

Source: https://centrostudiprimoarticolo.it

Translation by Costantino Ceoldo