Sports...
Someone asked me recently why I dislike professional sports. This is how I personally feel, so keep your emotions and egos in check. I will not try to change your beliefs, but I will tell you what mine are.
It is the obsession with sports that I don't like. I cannot endorse the obsession with professional sports, and here is why:
Put simply, it is identical to the obsession of adolescents with pop idols. Fans get obsessed, passionate, and sometimes violent, about things they are not a part of, have no control over, no influence in.
People are willingly sitting around, sometimes having paid quite a lot of money to watch people who have no personal relationship to them, so therefore should inspire no personal pride from them. Players who can make some 150 times more money than their fans do, demonstrate how pathetic the fans are, by demonstrating that the players have talents greater than the fans, and should therefore be elevated to godhood. Players who are willing to sell out to their organizations, and allowing these organizations to demonstrate that they have so much power by taking over all the communication channels in the country, and causing unnecessary animosity and sometimes violence. And yet, these players are also at the mercy of said organizations, and can have their careers ended in the blink of an eye by the wave of a hand.
This type of thing demonstrates that humanity is, by nature, prone to animosity and violence over the most trivial of things, and are willing to turn their brains and common sense off because they get so riled up about something that has no direct impact on their lives whatsoever. Something that is now a commercial industry and not about talent or pride in people close to them. This isn't about watching your children or family friend's children compete in an event, or even about your best friends competing. It has instead become about "putting on a good show" for the fans, and about who will make more money for the organization, rather than being about talent.
Be it in person or via the media networks, it is now about feeding the egos of disposable players, coaches, and families of said folk, and then padding the pockets of everyone involved in the promotion of said sports. This demeans the event to the equivalent of a pubescent obsession with a shooting star heart throb pop idol.
Show me sports that is solely about the talent and achievements of the players themselves, how said achievements affect their personal lives, and their families, and maybe I'll have a reason to watch it. Give me a reason to care about the people, rather than the ball clubs and commercial endorsements. Make professional sports as personal to me as watching my own, or my best friend's children compete in an event, and I'll be happy to watch something I can say inspires me to pride. Until then, I'll eschew every major sporting event I can, and denounce it when I can, as a colossal waste of everyone's time.
By the way, if you don't believe me, just watch how you comment. For many of you, the way in which you disagree in your comments, or even by possibly ending your relationship with me here, will mark you as falling into the trappings I've mentioned above. Just don't expect it to elicit a reaction from me.
It is the obsession with sports that I don't like. I cannot endorse the obsession with professional sports, and here is why:
Put simply, it is identical to the obsession of adolescents with pop idols. Fans get obsessed, passionate, and sometimes violent, about things they are not a part of, have no control over, no influence in.
People are willingly sitting around, sometimes having paid quite a lot of money to watch people who have no personal relationship to them, so therefore should inspire no personal pride from them. Players who can make some 150 times more money than their fans do, demonstrate how pathetic the fans are, by demonstrating that the players have talents greater than the fans, and should therefore be elevated to godhood. Players who are willing to sell out to their organizations, and allowing these organizations to demonstrate that they have so much power by taking over all the communication channels in the country, and causing unnecessary animosity and sometimes violence. And yet, these players are also at the mercy of said organizations, and can have their careers ended in the blink of an eye by the wave of a hand.
This type of thing demonstrates that humanity is, by nature, prone to animosity and violence over the most trivial of things, and are willing to turn their brains and common sense off because they get so riled up about something that has no direct impact on their lives whatsoever. Something that is now a commercial industry and not about talent or pride in people close to them. This isn't about watching your children or family friend's children compete in an event, or even about your best friends competing. It has instead become about "putting on a good show" for the fans, and about who will make more money for the organization, rather than being about talent.
Be it in person or via the media networks, it is now about feeding the egos of disposable players, coaches, and families of said folk, and then padding the pockets of everyone involved in the promotion of said sports. This demeans the event to the equivalent of a pubescent obsession with a shooting star heart throb pop idol.
Show me sports that is solely about the talent and achievements of the players themselves, how said achievements affect their personal lives, and their families, and maybe I'll have a reason to watch it. Give me a reason to care about the people, rather than the ball clubs and commercial endorsements. Make professional sports as personal to me as watching my own, or my best friend's children compete in an event, and I'll be happy to watch something I can say inspires me to pride. Until then, I'll eschew every major sporting event I can, and denounce it when I can, as a colossal waste of everyone's time.
By the way, if you don't believe me, just watch how you comment. For many of you, the way in which you disagree in your comments, or even by possibly ending your relationship with me here, will mark you as falling into the trappings I've mentioned above. Just don't expect it to elicit a reaction from me.