Dominus writes:
To be uninterested in sports is to be uninterested in
the body and what it can do
Ah, but that was not the thrust of my argument. Their
is a difference between enjoying a sport yourself, and
being in touch with your body, and the mass worship
of sport teams that occurs, and is driven more by money
that true athleticism. Yes, the players on a basketball
team may be good athletes, but the majority of people
watching it are not watching it just for the appreciation
of the athlete's body and the player's control of it -
they are also rooting for their team and vicariously
living through the team, as in "I can't beleive we lost
the game by one point!" and "My team plays again next
Friday." Most sports fans are far from being in touch
with their own bodies, and do not participate in sports
themselves, but merely watch it. There is nothing wrong
with this: it is their choice; I just feel society as a
whole would be better served if just 1% of the energy,
brainpower, time, and money that goes into following
organized sports were spent elsewhere. While I grant that
watching sports does not really detract from a person's
life, neither does it enhance it.
Sports are not incompatible with learning, exploring, or
asking difficult questions of one's surroundings.
Performing sports, no, but watching them? What does one
really gain from watching two hours of basketball? Again,
this is a personal choice, but as you say, it's a
way of "shutting off your brain."
I have no problem with watching TV or an interest in
sports, but I will usually think higher of someone who
*moderates* themselves in such activities, and has other
interests, than someone who hovers around the national
US average of 20+ hours per week watching TV. Is this
an unfair judgement? Perhaps, but I've meet too many
people in my life who have reinforced my opinion that
few people actually *think* anymore, but merely wander
through life. Luckily, a lot of the "thinking" people
end up online, one reason I love PerlMonks as much as
I do. :)