Prohibition doesn’t work
PROHIBITION simply does not work. It never has. It never will. The war on drugs has been one of the most costly failures in the history of law enforcement. It’s probably done more to damage lives and communities than the thing it’s ostensibly tasked with stopping – the consumption and use of illegal drugs.
One of the precursors of that war, the eighteenth amendment to the United States constitution (and the Volstead Act which gave it force) prohibiting of the sale and consumption of alcohol in the United States was an even greater failure.
The unintended consequences of that period of prohibition included the growth of organised crime – think of Chicago, think of Al Capone, think of the Valentine’s Day massacre. Where there’s a will there’s a way. If there’s a market for something, one way or another that market will be satisfied.
That’s something Joe Brolly would do well to consider when he calls for the UFC – the Ultimate Fighting Championship – to be banned.
We’ve got to admit we’ve got a certain amount of sympathy for Brolly’s position.
To our mind the UFC is little more than barbarism dressed up and sold with a glossy sheen. It’s too often an ugly, bloody mess that has more in common with the Coliseum and ancient Rome than what ought to be acceptable in the modern world.
Its defenders will point out that, unlike what Brolly asserts, there are rules. They will point out that it’s a skilful endeavour. It’s not simply the senseless bludgeoning of one man (or woman) by another.
On that we’re willing to concede the point. There’s a skill to what these guys (and girls) do. That doesn’t make it any less barbaric. Skilful barbarism is barbarism nevertheless.
Do we think the world would be better off without the Ultimate Fighting Championship? We do, but we don’t see banning it as a remotely sensible solution. It would simply go underground with the few protections and rules the fighters have stripped away. The world would be much better off without the sort of blood-lust that fuels the UFC, but we don’t see that disappearing any time soon. Until then we’re simply going to have to put up with Dana White and Conor McGregor and their cynical and ugly enterprise.