Pedro Valente, the Miami-based Jiu-Jitsu instructor who trained under Grandmaster Helio Gracie from age three until his passing, says he’s had enough of what he views as a deliberate pattern of historical revisionism targeting Gracie’s legacy…
One he believes is driven largely by social media incentives.
Speaking on a recent podcast, Valente connected the trend to an ancient Greek concept:
There’s a story in ancient Greece. They talk about Herostratus, and he brought down the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
This is about 400 years BC. And he brought down that beautiful temple.
And then they asked him: “Why did you do it?” And he confessed that he did it because he wanted to become famous.
He argues the same impulse now plays out online:
In ancient Greece they call it the Herostratic impulse, which is this impulse that people have to destroy myths for notoriety, and in our generation to gain clicks, clickbait, to be able to get more followers on Instagram, on social media.
Valente believes Helio Gracie’s stature in martial arts makes him a natural target:
Helio Gracie has become bigger than life.
He started this movement with his brother Carlos that culminated in one of the biggest sports in the world.
Rather than seeing that legacy celebrated, Valente says certain content creators actively work to undermine it, often shaping the narrative before doing the research:
Many times we see people cherry-picking the sources in order to be able to tell a story that they already created before the research.
He also pointed to personal resentment as a contributing factor:
It connects with certain people who have resentment in their hearts and they like this idea of tearing down someone who was successful.
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