gladiatorial contests

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After I forwarded the ANTHRO-L posting from John O"brien to him, he
replied with some ideas i thought might interest others:

I particularly like the idea of the evolutionalry parallel, and the
idea of the yonger ones preying on the older ones, who are totally
unfit. The analogy between the intellectual 'fitness' and the physical
one is really remarkable.

One problem with the idea though- there is still a difficulty with
sexual harassment. Also with minority representation. How do they
think all these 'special groups' will fare in the competition. For
example, the men will usually defeat the women (as has occurred in the
past), so do they now give women a handicap like giving the men very
short clubs, and the women long clubs with nails? What about the
cripples? If a handicapped person applies for a job, do they cut off a
leg of the non-handicapped person to equalize the competition?

All in all it seems like a good idea to me. With the lack of funds in
most universities (ie the sports teams), perhaps they can fill an
arena with the gladiatorial events. I suppose that academics dueling
to the death would draw more than even the best basketball game...

Are they taking nominations for the Old Farts League yet? I have one or
two I would liek to nominate for immediate extinction...

Dana Naldrett

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