Are sports the opium of the masses? Or just boring?

I bet that opium is doing wonders in Cleveland.

 

The spoiler is because of a large picture.

Spoiler

 

Spot on.
Devo-lution

 

Yes, it is the opium of the masses. I try not to get more addicted to sports and to remain somewhat political while follwoing the Rockets and Longhorns obsessively.

I like reading Dave Zirin. He has to be about the only leftist who writes about sports.

The vast majority of my political friends don't have any interest in sports. As we see on this bbs most of the Rockets fans have a fairly minimal interest in politics, except for the few, the proud, the Debate and Discussion crowd.

 

Its a question I ask myself every now and then - WHY is this important? I'll answer in 2 parts

- Does sports have a place high on the pedestal of social and political relevance? Does it deserve its level of importance?

That's mainly the question the panel is discussing, rather than if they're "boring" or interesting.

My answer is NO it doesn't. In the end, it is only a game. I don't think it means sports should hold NO relevance, or they NEVER SHOULD be important. Just I think it sports can be appreciated as something to pass the time and burn some energy. Kinda like someone playing a flash game online or Tetris after a long day of work or a long weekend of studying. Its a breakaway and something to occupy the mind, except with real people playing.

- Are sports boring?

Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, Big Brother, and any show with "contestants" is the same thing as sports -
people going against each other in some challenge to achieve some objective. Then they're ranked as winners and losers. Don't let people tell you its different. They even keep score on some of these shows.

Whats the difference between that and sports? Its thats sports are too masculine, promote all the negative traits of masculinity, so it needs to be neutered. Maybe I view the world too much in those terms, but it works for me.

So I say no sports are NOT boring. Compared to alternatives that are considered view-worthy.

Conclusion:
Sports nor reality shows, or talk shows or Cartoon Network, offer much in significance to real life issues. One might have a military complex, the other an inferiority complex or stupidity complex.

Technically, when you focus on the FRAMEWORK of ANYTHING, you can break anything down into mere minutia, sheer triviality, pure BOREDOM.

I guess you'd have to ban hackeysack and frisbee tossing if you don't want people playing anything that might lead to sport. Ban London Bridge and hopscotch in the school yard since it will lead into competitive, corrupted power hungry people because WINNING is whats valued most.

Anything you're doing, you "could" or SHOULD be doing something better. Never ever stop to catch the score of the game, because you SHOULD be out in the streets protesting how the stadium its being played in is pillaging the citizens of its tax dollars and consuming too many of its resources. And just fattening the pockets of right wingers who wont give the money back into helping society.

 

Sports offer humans a competitive outlet so we don't kill ourselves. We are innately both clans like and competitive. If you hate Utah, you take it out in the court and not in the battle fields. Ergo, sports is necessary to fill a primal function for the sake of a civilized society.

 

While I am a big basketball fan and think that all work and no play makes Jack go suicidal, I think sports has reached the point where it is too large in our culture. It seems that even the smallest achievement in the field of athletics receive more praise then a major advance in academia or anything that can better the human race. We play athletes millions of dollars to keep us entertained, but we expect smart people to solve our problems while we mock them as nerds.

 

today's opiate of the masses.

<a target='_blank' title='ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting' href='http://img697.imageshack.us/i/t101679f.jpg/'><img src='http://a.imageshack.us/img697/4710/t101679f.jpg' border='0'/></a>

rail one of these and see if you can still stand up.

 

Sports is a proxy for war. Breads and circuses.

Maybe that's why we care about it more than the two fronts we have in who knows where.

 

The whole entire entertainment industry we put too much money into, even with the piracy out there. But yeah things like the ESPY awards might be a sign sports might have widened out too far.

Thats true about expecting smart people to solve our problems while mocking them at the same time. Its DOUBLY bad. Because not only should the "nerds" not be mocked, they deserve AS MUCH SKEPTICISM as any politician. Science and tech should NOT work "behind the scenes" in a lab and given automatic trust. They need to be as transparent as anybody. But thats another topic...

As assholey as it is, Barkley was right in that he's not a role model and he shouldnt be raising our kids. It wouldnt hurt if athletes were more socially conscious, but ultimately it falls on the people to figure out whats important.

We can't disregard the NBA Cares campaign and NFL United Way contributions though.

 

The entire reason people watch and play sports is because they enjoy doing so. If one wanted to get really technical, I'm sure one could formulate some argument which would suggest otherwise, but what would be the point? In the end, there is nothing inherently wrong with sports. The entire industry is built about individuals associating with each other on a mutually beneficial and voluntary manner. What is wrong with that? Besides, it doesn't seem logical to assert that people are politically apathetic because they watch sports, or vice versa, and I'm also skeptical that blaming voluntary and industrious actions, in this case, is the right course of action. Perhaps, apathy isn't as much of a problem as was asserted in the opening post -- or, perhaps, the apathy has more to do with the utter failure of our system of government in providing venues by which the people can correct the system's injustices. Of course, I'm also skeptical that voting for representatives can yield a democratic representation. All in all, anybody who would proclaim that sports are harming society is more than likely a pretentious elitist who feels that their own decisions are always better than those of others.

 

As a player, sport plays an important role in teaching social values such as teamwork, persistence, the benefits of hard work, creativity / problem solving, and grace, in addition to fostering physical development.

As observers, sport is 95% what Billy Bob and Invisible Fan said, and 5% social values.

I also agree with da_juice when he says that sport is getting more than its fair share at our dinner table.

 

Being on a sports website, I think we all can be somewhat accused of placing sports a bit too highly.

But you know what - if that's what people want and value, than that's what it is. I think you look at other countries, and they are just as fanatical. Look at the World Cup. If anything we have too many popular sports and that's really the issue - hopefully we can export some more and level the playing field.

No one aspires to be a nerd because let's face it, the whole notion of sports, entertainment, and all that is around sex and dominance in some form or another. I think it's all rather primal and exposes us for what we are - a pack of dogs respecting the top dogs and trying to promote ourselves by picking the dogs we align with.

Nerds aren't top dogs, they are the ones who figure out how to make the dog food better.

 

The Real Opiates

Spoiler

 

Indeed. I'm a proud slurper of that opiate, myself!

 

Nice post with the Huxley/Orwell comparisons. 1984 is supposed to come before BNW, but I think we are living some combination of the two in America.

Sports are a tool of the ruling class, this was the main staple of Rome, which ran out of circuses and bread. The scientific dictatorship will absolutely not run out of distractions, not until the masses are brain dead zombies.

Grown men are NOT supposed to worship athletes and spend hours a day reading about and watching sports. 100 years ago you would have been a total nutjob for following sports, they were a pastime and mostly for children to play.

Of course when you have a nation where the children never really grew up, you have a society that worships sports. The idea is to get people worked up over things that really mean 0 in their lives, such as which team won the championship or who got signed/traded. This helps them release their pent up anger or emotion, which should be used against a government that robs them blind. People become apathetic when they lose interest in the 'boring' (politics, reading) and escape into a fantasy world which has very little to do with their real life.

I gave up TV a while ago and feel totally different after spending almost 27 years glued to sports and television. I still watch sports from time to time, but I view it as a form of mind control/psych warfare, and it actually bores me now unless I have money on the game.