America & Hysteria for Sports
November 12, 2011
My roommate from Bosnia who teaches philosophy is alarmed at America’s massive hysteria over the enterprise of sport. I said, “this is what follows from a culture that values good things like power and financial gain at toxic levels. Such priorities cultivate baboon-like beings (actually, this may be insulting to baboons) who overlook what is most important in life, i.e., gaining knowledge and developing character. Instead, we value charging off to war, radical individualism (e.g. GOP politics), and discard ethics as long as a sports coach or player brings in the big bucks through wins. This perverts the meaning of sport entirely.”
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Sarah, although I myself am no fan of sports, I can’t help but think this is a bit alarmist. Sports have been an integral part of human life from the dawn of the species and (as far as I know) have consumed vast portions of the lives of every culture since then. Even the Greeks, whose philosophers valued knowledge so highly, placed an enormous value on athletics.
I can’t help but ask, then, isn’t it a little too convenient that the philosopher thinks the most important thing in life is gaining knowledge and developing character? Doesn’t this belief reflect your personal values more than it reflects some kind of Platonic truth?
Hi Andy,
As I said in my note here, sports, financial gain, and power are all good things. But when maximized to a certain degree, it leads to the implications I mention. And no, the pursuit of knowledge and character need not require a Platonisic framework. This can develop from the ground up, rather than from some platonic ideal on downward. That’s my two cents for now.
Sarah
The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?_r=1&ex=1255665600&en=890a96189e162076&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland