@Cycloptichorn,
WoW!! For sure this is the most eloquently expressed
and dispassionately, deftly well reasoned post
that I 've ever seen from u, Clyclo. I 'm impressed.
David wrote:If sports fanatics watch to behold the alleged beauty of sporting activity,
then, in theory (if thay are watching to see the beauty), then thay shoud be equally as happy
when the team whose efforts thay oppose is successful resulting
from the skillful play of its members. Do u agree with that, Cyclo?
Accordingly, when the Boston Red Sox are playing against the NY Yankees,
the Red Sox fans shoud cheer in rapturous elation! when the Yankees score a home run,
if it is done skillfully, because thay saw the BEAUTY of it.
Is that how it works, Cyclo ??
Cycloptichorn wrote:Yes, this is exactly how it works.
While sports fans do have their parochial concerns - everyone wants to see their chosen team prevail,
a feeling which (as a follower of politics) I'm sure you can understand - true fans do appreciate the beauty
of an amazing play, a stunning physical achievement, or an example of excellent teamwork.
Well, I hesitate to agree with u about that in that altho I certainly
understand the reasoning thereof in theory, my real-world observations
of sports fanatics (some of whom I 've known) are counter-indicative.
Indeed, I 've observed that when an opposing team is brilliantly successful,
the said fans act as tho thay 'd been deeply stabbed with a
red hot sword,
in a favored part of their anatomies. U 've acknowledged this ambivalence.
The only reaction that I 've seen in them is rank
despair and alarm.
So far as I can remember (not claiming to be an expert)
I 've never heard them say anything good about the opposing team.
Cycloptichorn wrote:I myself am a fan of the sport of Football (for a variety of reasons ]which I'd be happy to discuss if you like)
Thank u. I accept your invitation, in that I have a very longstanding interest in human thought processes.
Cycloptichorn wrote:and have, many times, watched an opposing team perform just such a play against my favored team.
I am well acquainted with the twin feelings of disappointment
in the fact that my chosen team had a negative event,
yet happiness for getting to witness an amazing feat by an opposing player.
That makes sense to me, Cyclo.
Cycloptichorn wrote: Sometimes the other team is too good for your chosen team, and there's nothing shameful about that.
Very clearly:
u r correct, but the other fans don 't appear to see it that way. Thay can get very negatively emotional.
I have held the opinion that thay have really lost nothing, that thay have literally gotten near despondent over nothing.
Cycloptichorn wrote:In fact, witnessing such events is the highlight of watching sporting activity. Sports evolve over time, they do not stay static; the competition works very much like Capitalism, in that greater strengths and efficiencies are bred by the system itself. Let us pick an individual sport such as, say, tennis; modern players are bigger, faster, stronger, more intelligent, and more skillful than older players. Or a non-competitive (directly at least) sport such as Rock Climbing, which I participate in myself. It pushes the human body to it's limits and celebrates the incredible beauty and complexity of our forms and lives.
Beauty and the appreciation of the capabilities of the human form are one aspect of enjoying sports; another is competition
Well, from the perspective of a baseball fan watching on TV,
I find it difficult to understand Y
HE shoud care which group of strangers
from which of 2 distant cities will be better at running around in circles?
I can 't help but wonder: what the hell
DIFFERENCE does it make
which group of strangers gets more points than the other?
No matter
WHAT happens:
HE breaks even.
If its a question of wagering:
its easier n faster to flip a coin or cut a deck of cards.
Cycloptichorn wrote:another is camaraderie, some people enjoy wagering upon them.
Sports act as a bonding activity for many men and women
who otherwise wouldn't have much in common (like any other activity).
Participating or looking ?
Cycloptichorn wrote:It has never been my intention to say that one cannot like
or dislike whatever they want; but to claim that people who DO
like sports are stupid, or boorish, or all 'jocks' or are all 'bullies?'
Well, in fairness, it has already been acknowledged in this thread
that some jocks were champions of justice, vindicating the rights
of the victims of abusive jocks.
Cycloptichorn wrote:Those are ignorant statements, born out of bigotry and prejudice, voiced by fools.
I would no more suffer such comments silently than I would
blanket condemnations of the intelligence of women or blacks or Muslims.
Bad experiences in one's past never give one the right to be a bigot.
I expect to live out my life without ever rebuking nor condemning
the Armenians for resentment v. the Turks,
nor against the Jews for vocal resentment v. the Germans.
I don 't begrudge them that.
(Let 's not re-visit the matter of differences of scale & degree;
we 've done that already.)
People who 've been abused have the right to complain about it.
Freedom of speech being what it
IS, thay also have the right
to condemn various errors n shortcomings of the perpetrators.
Cycloptichorn wrote:Part of the human condition, part of being an adult, is to learn
to overcome our prejudices and forgive others
for what we consider to be their imperfections.
Failure to do so is indicative of a lack of character.
Cycloptichorn
For
MY part, I 'll be slower to condemn the victims' outcries of pain,
and complaints of injustice, however chronic n residual thay may be.
For instance, my dead friend, Neil, told me of an Irishman who 'd
been so severely offended and wounded in his emotions qua English
abuses of the Irish, that he said:
"even if an Englishman saved my life, I coud not like him."
Despite my own English ancestry, I can understand that
and I reciprocate no ill will.
If a rape victim refused to forgive her rapist,
I coud not find it in my heart to condemn her nor to denounce her character.
The issue of forgiveness is most profound indeed;
in my judgment: it's the proper subject matter of another thread.
David
