bullfighting: say goodbye.

So we all know that an act of cowardice when we see it, yah? We also seem to know heroes too? Well, I would say we do not, that my hero is your coward and vice versa. heroes and cowards are different for each of us. Acts that would make me fill up with pride, would make another person angry and hurt. why is this, why is it that your hero can be my coward?
I was thinking about it today and realised that it is because the lines between heroic and cowardice are somewhat hard to trace. A hero known throughout history as such may suddenly turn into a coward if someone whom the modern day population deems a hero, calls him so.
I thought of the following situation, one deep in tradition and controversy...all things should be this passionate.

I grew up in Spain. I remember walking around in the middle of super-hot days and seeing through the dark windows older men who would drink cheap wine or warm beer in a bar and watch bullfighting. To these men it was strength that they saw. They saw a fighter conquring a beautiful beast. These fights had gone on for years and many of the older men remember when entertainment such as this got them through Spain's darkest days of dictatorship and civil war. But, for these wonderful old men, I am sorry to say that bullfighting, much set up as in the times of gladiators in ancient Rome, has become very outdated in the last decades. There are many people who see it as distasteful, and cowardly to fight and jab at an animal who is stuck in a ring and does not have the ability to save itself. The youth of Spain has seen enough of this ritual of heroes and their pray. They see the beast for what it is, and to them that beast is the bullfighter.

It is hard to say when things changed, I believe it is a current theme in which the underdog is devoutly routed for, and anyone in power is tyrannical and wrong. There are many men who were heroes and are now not heroes anymore, I understand why in some cases, in others it has gone to extreme in the opposite direction. The balance must be achieved. Heroes must be named, and we need to stop calling our heroes beasts. We need to see them in the context of history, people such as the pilgrims, native Americans, slaves, Columbus, the white man, Christians, governments, leaders, churches, religions, nations...we need to see where they are now, what they have come from and know that if we had lived in those days, most likely we would have believed that bullfighting was beautiful as well.

bullring, Barcelona Spain.