Proof That Civilization Can no Longer Advance and Must Therefore Regress

The Running of the Mules

Has anyone noticed all over social media ad after ad for this Tough Mudder competition?  Of all that is retarded, surely THIS is the cherry on top.

People are signing up, forking over $150 dollars (give or take depending on how many other idiots you can convince the need to prove their masculinity) to ultimately prove to themselves that they are big and tough by running through 10,000 volts of electricity while doused in wet mud and other equally ridiculous obstacles.

As absolutely insane as this sounds for a business model, it is highly successful.  Tough Mudder as a company is worth $70 million after only two years of existence.

Thanks to social media outlets like Facebook, there is now an overabundance of attention seekers doing (and in most cases pretending to do) all types of otherwise unappealing and pointless activities out loud and for everyone else to see. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and every other social media network has given everyone the opportunity to write their own biographies one post at a time, and as a result we flock for "accomplishments" we can share. Showing off doesn't have the same shame attached to it that it might have 10 or 20 years ago, because the whole point of posting on social media is to essentially say, "Look what I'm doing! I painted my face like a football player and threw myself in a vat of frozen ice water for $130!"

What separates it from, say, climbing a mountain or trekking across a desert is that it is not a test of ability or of the mental fortitude necessary to push your body through the agony of effort. It's just three hours of horrible things happening to you for a few seconds at a time. In other words, it's carefully orchestrated harassment. Each obstacle is about the pageantry first and in a distant second is your own ability to power through it because it's about the story you tell later rather than the experience itself.

Tough Mudder offers a window dressing version of personal betterment without much behind it.  I say we just reopen the coliseum and charge these idiots to fight the lions.  Nothing beats a classic.