FUCK CHRIS BENOIT
It took me a couple of days to process my thoughts about the recent Chris Benoit tragedy. At first when I heard that he and his family were dead I thought they may have been murdered but I should have known better. I will be the first to say that I respected Chris Benoit as a performer. He was one the the greats. What he lacked in charisma he made up for with his in-ring skill and passion. It was clear that he lived and breathed wrestling and that counts for a lot with me. All that aside, I have three words to describe this whole situation "Fuck Chris Benoit".
I am pissed off by this whole situation. Obviously killing your wife and child is disgraceful. There can be no explanation or reasoning about why this happened. Offing yourself after doing that to your family is really the only proper thing to do. As bad as all this is, I am not mad about him killing his family and hanging himself. Shit happens, and crazy people will always do crazy things. What I am angry about, and strikes much closer to home, is the accusations and inferences that anabolic steroids were the reason for this tragedy.
Like I said before, there are never "reasons" or "cause" for killing your wife and kid. Explaining this type action is not something we can do as sane people. In a normal state of mind it is natural to try to point at something to explain the unexplainable. The truth is that Chris Benoit was clearly fucked up. I would also argue that the entire family dynamic was also tragically flawed. The fact that Chris's son was being injected with Human Growth Hormone tells you that this family was insane. So the Benoit's were concerned that their son looked like a dwarf... Why? Chris looked like a juiced up dwarf himself. My main point is that this family was clearly heading toward disaster and someone should have seen it coming.
What I cannot deal with is this idea that Chris Benoit killed his family and them himself because he took anabolic steroids. As many of you know, I have used anabolic steroids and I know a good number of men who do. I feel that I have some level of knowledge about what these drugs do to a person so I will share. Steroids, like many other drugs, tend to exacerbate your existing personality traits. Personally, I become more self-motivated, inward and distant when I use them since that is how I am naturally. In some ways, I am a better person when I am using. That is not always the case, I do know men who tend to more depressed or violent when using them. But the "more" is the important word in that sentence. Guys who like to fight or beat their girlfriends or kids are idiots. They have little control of themselves and when confronted, they lash out, and act like animals. These are the guys who have brought "roid rage" to the national consciousness. Bottom line is that an asshole is an asshole and anytime you give an asshole any type of drug (Steroids, alcohol, coke, etc) they get worse. Blaming steroids for this tragedy is like tanorexic whores who blame starring in an impromptu bukkake party on Long Island Ice Tea. It is an excuse, nothing more, nothing less.
I have also enjoyed the way the media has jumped on this story. Stories about wrestlers and their drug use, insane lifestyles and debauchery is plain lazy journalism. Yes... wrestlers are drugged up pricks, no doubt about that. But the same can be said about any other professional athlete. It's just funny to me that a wrestler kills his family and himself and "STEROIDS LEAD TO TRAGEDY" and yet when a pro football player beats up eight guys and rapes a woman at some strip club the headline reads "BRAWL AT STRIP CLUB, FOOTBALL PLAYER QUESTIONED". When we hear about pro athletes perpetrating crimes all we hear about is "they hang out with the wrong crowd" or "they have so much money, they think they are above the law". Why not steroids? Shit, most football players are every bit as juiced up as pro wrestlers but the public generally does not know that. So it is much easier to talk about the problems that people are familiar with. In other words people want to hear convenient and lazy excuses. Our society has become dependent on these excuses for abhorrent behavior.
When men who have power, money and fame commit crimes it is all about arrogance. You see, men are wired to crave these things and when a man achieves a certain level of fame or wealth, arrogance sets in. Arrogance by itself does not make men violent. Arrogance leads to a need to control everything around you, and that is where the violence comes from. When your circle of control is threatened you become violent. Plain and simple. This is the lesson be learned in this story. Another man has been led astray by his inability to deal with life in the spotlight and three people lost their lives because of it. That is the real tragedy. Rest in Peace Nancy and Daniel. Chris... FUCK YOU!
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-arthur@arthurshall.com
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