We've had a very heated argument. You are mad at me, I'm tense too. We both know that our aggression will not get physical. The very best you can do is swallow your wrath.
Not anymore! Now there is 'Nemesis', a mobile app which allows you to unspeakably torture my avatar. I kindly recognize your need to recharge your aggression and let you take a picture of me which dresses up my avatar the way I am currently dressed. You have customized it to scream and suffer with your favorite phrases as you didn't like my own defaults.
On your way home, you feel like getting physical so you stop by a Nemesis vending machine, start punching and struggling its dummy and eventually terminate me with a head-shot.
Fuck yeah!
You are still mad at me but at least you didn't have to gulp down all your flight or fight responses.
In the evening, the 'respectful fighting' section of your gym helps you totally relax. Now, with your aggression dismissed, you think about our argument more clearly (you still consider me a cheesy arrogant prick but your heartbeat keeps cool).
____________
It's about time we accept our need for violence.
I dream of communities where virtual, controlled releases of aggression and humiliation will be popular and handy. Old ladies will be publicly slapping & stabbing their sons in law, or even their own avatars. Children will keep playing violent video-games.
Eventually, actual guns, grenades and heavy drugs would be obsolete crap that sometime used to kill billions of innocent ignorants but also produced great scenarios for games, movies etc.
My children will know that humans do need to run and fight and argue, just like we need to eat and pee. Only, now, we manage to satisfy those needs in civilized, non-destructive ways.
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