How can otherwise intelligent people pay to watch unreal play-acting, and terrible acting at that, is something that would baffle the mind of the most astute psychologist. It is obvious that violence always has appealed to people. Boxing and wrestling are perhaps the oldest sports known to man. Gladiators fighting to the death, feeding defenseless people to lions, such horrendous things once drew capacity crowds to the Colosseum in Rome. At least these hideous displays of violence were real.
Violence destroys society, rips apart the very fabric of human life.
Police officers risk their lives by the thousands every day to try and keep our nation's neighborhoods safe to live in. Social workers write tedious books about the horrible effects of urban violence. Politicians squander billions of dollars on social programs aimed at lowering the level of violence in society. There is nothing healthy about jumping on another person's head, nothing redeeming in two people kicking one another in the throat, gut, groin, and face. If such things were actually happening on a street corner somewhere, both of them would be arrested.