The Mental Illness called the Corrida
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
What do you call a person who enjoys inflicting pain through torture? The answer is: a psychopath.
What do you call a person who enjoys causing the death of another sentient being for amusement? The answer is: a psychopath.
What do you call people who enjoy watching the infliction of pain and death and who cheer with excitement as they watch? The answer is: Zoosadism i.e. experiencing pleasure derived from inflicting or watching the infliction of pain to an animal.
The Corrida (Bull Fight) is a gross public display of zoosadism. The word “matador” literary translates to “killer.” In other words, zoosadistic voyeurs watching psychopaths performing acts of gross brutality.
The Corrida is not a sport, it is a ritual glorification of violence and death and there is no difference between the Corrida and the ancient spectacles by the Roman bestiarii, the gladiators who specialized in fighting animals.
This week, in the wake of the death of a matador named Victor Barrio, the Spanish police have launched an official investigation into comments on the internet that they deemed disrespectful and libelous to the death of the matador.
Apparently it is acceptable to cheer as a bull is tortured and slain, when its ears and tail are cut off, when spears are driven into its back but it is unacceptable to cheer for the bull.
People do express their anger and they do so out of frustration and a feeling of helplessness but a person who comments, “I will dance on the grave of that sadistic killer Barrio” is hardly a threat to anyone’s security or welfare. They are simply angry.
I am not happy that Barrio was killed and I have no intention of celebrating his death but I am not happy that Lorenzo the bull was tortured and killed either. I will however confess that my sympathies lie more with the bull than the man for the following reasons.
I find no honour in what Barrio was doing. It reminds me of the scene in the movie Gladiator where the Emperor Commodus stabs a bound Maximus in the kidney prior to fighting him in the ring. As such the evidence is that matadors, just like Commodus are cowardly and fight without honour.
Compounding this dishonor is the fact that the rules of the Corrida dictate that the victorious bull be branded as a “murderer” and executed, and in a mafia style retribution that the cow who bore him be executed and the bloodline destroyed.
The bull-fighting establishment is outraged by what they consider disrespectful comments against Barrio and bullfighting. Being angry about comments does not even come close to the validity of being angry in the face of such sadistic and bloodthirsty actions.
One side inflicts pain and death and the other expresses outrage in words and the law seeks to punish those who use words in order to protect a bloody business worth some 3.2 billion dollars a year.
Some in Spain lament that the bullfight is part of their culture and thus a sacred tradition. They demand that their culture be respected. Those who oppose the Corrida are on firmer moral and ethical ground by demanding that life be respected.
This is the 21st Century and we must evolve towards a world where slaughter and torture be eradicated in all forms and where there can be no justification on any grounds.
The ironic thing is that the Corrida is an aberration that emerged from for a far more ancient tradition that involved great courage, great athletic ability and greater respect than this modern obscenity being practiced today.
The contest between people and bulls originated some four thousand years ago in Minoan Crete performed by skilled men and women who somersaulted over the bull’s neck and horns. These performances required profound strength, incredible speed and a lifetime of training with the object of bonding with the bull, not killing him.
On the wall painting of the Palace of Knossos the entire procedure can be seen in detail:
A charging bull in front of which a young female athlete has grabbed the bull’s horns, ready to jump over it; on the bull’s back a male athlete in somersault, hands on the bull’s back; and behind the animal another female athlete who has landed on her feet, arms raised in victory.
These acts of courage and acrobatic skills far surpass the modern toreador reliance on maiming the bull, destroying the neck muscles and plunging a sword into the heart. And even more challenging to the modern machismo is the fact that woman were considered far more adept at performing acrobatic feats with the bulls than the men.
The Minoans celebrated the beauty of the performance and respected the bull. There was no torment, no death and no blood, there was only the appreciation of the abilities that humans have for discipline and agility.
Today matadors brag about how they risk their life every day but the bulls sacrifice their lives every day. And yet the risk the matadors take is in truth quite minimal. Barrio was the first matador to die since 1985 when José Cubero was gored in Madrid. Two banderilleros were killed in 1992 in Seville. Since then more civilians have died on the horns of the bulls because Spanish law allows for stupid people to do stupid things. It’s kind of like Spain’s own version of the Darwin Awards.
Victor Barrio was not stupid, he played with bulls for a living and in this respect I do pity Barrio. He was born in the wrong time. During the time of Hemmingway, the matador was beyond reproach, they were treated like royalty and rewarded with universal appreciation for their skills. But times have changed and humanity has evolved, slowly yes, and with a long way to go, but the reality is that the Corrida is rapidly becoming a symbol of cruelty and the archaic senselessness of continuing a ritualistic orgy of blood. Today more people worldwide are cheering for the bull than the matador.
For every matador killed by a bull, tens of thousands of bulls are slain by matadors.
Like the other so called traditions that cling to the limbs of the present, such cruel fruits are rapidly rotting and dropping. The Corrida has been abolished in Catalonia, the foxhunt has been outlawed in Britain and in most places dog-fighting cock-fighting, bear-baiting etc have been banned.
Obscenities still linger on but are under enormous pressure to be abolished – like the slaughter of dolphins in Japan and the Faroe Islands, trophy hunting, dog roasting in China, ritual slaughter worldwide and other assorted human sadistic depravities.
It is only a matter of time until this anthropocentric insensitivity is abolished as humanity moves ever forward towards an enlightened age where all forms of zoosadism are abolished and where the dark urges of securing excitement through blood and death are no more. (written by Captain Paul Watson, originally posted on Facebook)
People do express their anger and they do so out of frustration and a feeling of helplessness but a person who comments, “I will dance on the grave of that sadistic killer Barrio” is hardly a threat to anyone’s security or welfare. They are simply angry.
I am not happy that Barrio was killed and I have no intention of celebrating his death but I am not happy that Lorenzo the bull was tortured and killed either. I will however confess that my sympathies lie more with the bull than the man for the following reasons.
- The man made the choice to confront the bull. The bull had no choice.
- The man’s chances of surviving the “contest” were 99% compared to the 100% certainty that the bull would die.
- The man was doing what he was doing for money, glory and his ego. The bull was forced into anger by having his testicles constricted, Vaseline smeared in his eyes and spears penetrating the muscles in his neck plus the stress of thousands of people screaming for his death from the stands.
- The matador fought for what he called “honor”. The bull fought for survival.
I find no honour in what Barrio was doing. It reminds me of the scene in the movie Gladiator where the Emperor Commodus stabs a bound Maximus in the kidney prior to fighting him in the ring. As such the evidence is that matadors, just like Commodus are cowardly and fight without honour.
Compounding this dishonor is the fact that the rules of the Corrida dictate that the victorious bull be branded as a “murderer” and executed, and in a mafia style retribution that the cow who bore him be executed and the bloodline destroyed.
The bull-fighting establishment is outraged by what they consider disrespectful comments against Barrio and bullfighting. Being angry about comments does not even come close to the validity of being angry in the face of such sadistic and bloodthirsty actions.
One side inflicts pain and death and the other expresses outrage in words and the law seeks to punish those who use words in order to protect a bloody business worth some 3.2 billion dollars a year.
Some in Spain lament that the bullfight is part of their culture and thus a sacred tradition. They demand that their culture be respected. Those who oppose the Corrida are on firmer moral and ethical ground by demanding that life be respected.
This is the 21st Century and we must evolve towards a world where slaughter and torture be eradicated in all forms and where there can be no justification on any grounds.
The ironic thing is that the Corrida is an aberration that emerged from for a far more ancient tradition that involved great courage, great athletic ability and greater respect than this modern obscenity being practiced today.
The contest between people and bulls originated some four thousand years ago in Minoan Crete performed by skilled men and women who somersaulted over the bull’s neck and horns. These performances required profound strength, incredible speed and a lifetime of training with the object of bonding with the bull, not killing him.
On the wall painting of the Palace of Knossos the entire procedure can be seen in detail:
A charging bull in front of which a young female athlete has grabbed the bull’s horns, ready to jump over it; on the bull’s back a male athlete in somersault, hands on the bull’s back; and behind the animal another female athlete who has landed on her feet, arms raised in victory.
These acts of courage and acrobatic skills far surpass the modern toreador reliance on maiming the bull, destroying the neck muscles and plunging a sword into the heart. And even more challenging to the modern machismo is the fact that woman were considered far more adept at performing acrobatic feats with the bulls than the men.
The Minoans celebrated the beauty of the performance and respected the bull. There was no torment, no death and no blood, there was only the appreciation of the abilities that humans have for discipline and agility.
Today matadors brag about how they risk their life every day but the bulls sacrifice their lives every day. And yet the risk the matadors take is in truth quite minimal. Barrio was the first matador to die since 1985 when José Cubero was gored in Madrid. Two banderilleros were killed in 1992 in Seville. Since then more civilians have died on the horns of the bulls because Spanish law allows for stupid people to do stupid things. It’s kind of like Spain’s own version of the Darwin Awards.
Victor Barrio was not stupid, he played with bulls for a living and in this respect I do pity Barrio. He was born in the wrong time. During the time of Hemmingway, the matador was beyond reproach, they were treated like royalty and rewarded with universal appreciation for their skills. But times have changed and humanity has evolved, slowly yes, and with a long way to go, but the reality is that the Corrida is rapidly becoming a symbol of cruelty and the archaic senselessness of continuing a ritualistic orgy of blood. Today more people worldwide are cheering for the bull than the matador.
For every matador killed by a bull, tens of thousands of bulls are slain by matadors.
Like the other so called traditions that cling to the limbs of the present, such cruel fruits are rapidly rotting and dropping. The Corrida has been abolished in Catalonia, the foxhunt has been outlawed in Britain and in most places dog-fighting cock-fighting, bear-baiting etc have been banned.
Obscenities still linger on but are under enormous pressure to be abolished – like the slaughter of dolphins in Japan and the Faroe Islands, trophy hunting, dog roasting in China, ritual slaughter worldwide and other assorted human sadistic depravities.
It is only a matter of time until this anthropocentric insensitivity is abolished as humanity moves ever forward towards an enlightened age where all forms of zoosadism are abolished and where the dark urges of securing excitement through blood and death are no more. (written by Captain Paul Watson, originally posted on Facebook)