Opiate? - Is sport new religion?

[Towelly]

In todays secular celebrity obsessed society has sport taken on the role of church?In Ireland Roy Keane gains more news coverage than any other issue.

[canikickit]

What's the craic?

Yes, sport is used in a way to control the masses, but it doesn't really control people.

It's not as if we're going to go to war with Cork if Bertie says so, is it?

This shit pisses me off. I'm not going to stop watching forms of entertainment, just because i can see them in the cynical way they are used.

[pastradamus]

yeah its fucked up over here,people have been killed in arguments over roy keane.In Ireland Sports is bigger than politics.

[Blibblob]

I think we are all too cynical...

Can life smack me in the face and say, "wake up dammit, not EVERYTHING is evil"?

Or are we doomed to spend life seeing it in its evil forms, must we live out like Wobbly Headed Bob?(for all those who dont know, cynical bastard who kills people by telling them their life sucks, Vasquez)

*sits in chair and plays games*

[Towelly]

It is entertainment but you don`t go to the cinema and start chanting for Frodo Baggins,do you?Look at the nationalism stirred up by internationals.Games seem to serve a purpose not unlike that of the "two-minute hate" in 1984.

[Towelly]

If people paid as much attention to whats going on in the U.N,W.T.O or even local government as they do to televised sport I could`nt imagine governments getting away with forcefeeding us the same level of bullshit they do now.

[Pete]

Isn't sport a right of man in Cuba? Amateur sports are great. Pro sports are bullshit.

[pastradamus]

Felix Savon,cuban boxer & a true patron of socialism.
The Guy is such a good amateur boxer that he was offered $15 million to fight Tyson,and refused.Now thats a man beyond the grasp of greed & bullshit.

[timbaly]

I don't understand how people are willing to blow so much money on sports. the poorest people in the ghettos always have brand new basketball shoes and sports jerseys. They waste so much money on unimportant shit while they should be concentrating on getting out of poverty. At sports events food is 3 to 4 times more expensive than normal yet people still tolerate it and continue to go to stadiums. In reality the people make the players richer, Baseball players get ridiculous sums of money in the US. Alex Rodriguez makes something like 22 million an year. In order to pay the ever increasing salleries of the players the owners must raise their prices. So every year ticket prices increase, they increase so much that for a family of 4 to see a single game at yankee stadium it would probaly cost around 200 or up. That would compensate for four tickets, parking fee, 2 beers 2 sodas and 4 hotdogs.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Around here most people tune on to Rush Limbaugh(Which, if you don't know, is a self-centered, egotistical, right-winging, Bush-lover) for about 30 minutes a week and manage to use that information to justify anything that America does. High-Schoolers care as much about politics around here as much as the Ku Klux Klan does developing literacy programes for African children. The most a high-schooler could give a shit about politics is if he's one of those Anarchist, punk/goths that are really into the local music scene and can't get past anti-American slurs and into more insightful political arguments.

These are just my personal complaints and rantings, please don't mind me.

[Blibblob]

I fully agree with victorcommie. It takes a lot not to kill many of those who insult the US without reason, i will defend the US against those fools.

And american football players get payed more.

[redstar2000]

The role of the professional sports complex is interesting, isn't it?

I wouldn't say it has "taken the place" of religion...but rather has become a valuable supplement to religion and patriotism, and borrows from both.

Have you ever seen a Superbowl Half-time Show? Patriotism, Religion and Sports all blend into something that resembles a Nazi Party Rally in Nurenburg in 1935! Truly hideous to any civilized onlooker.

That's probably the worst example, but ordinary baseball games are now marred with not only the national anthem but the genuinely ugly "God Bless America."

What goes on at the Olympics has already been widely reported (fixed judges and so forth). Other sports have been corrupted in similar ways.

In the 1960s, there was a group of French kids who became known as the "situationists"...their analysis of capitalism referred to modern society as a "society of the spectacle". The "best way" to keep exploiting the working class without resistance is to keep the working class "entertained." They weren't necessarily referring to professional sports...but I think their insight applies here.

Interestingly enough, I've seen articles that suggested that the rise of the modern professional sports complex has been accompanied by a decline in amateur, participatory sports. People watch rather than play.

And then there is what might be called the "masculine validation" aspect; there are studies which claim that when a male sports fan watches "his" team win a contest, the testosterone (male hormone) level in his bloodstream rises by 20 per cent; a defeat, however, causes a drop in testosterone level of about 20 per cent. Weird!

Professional sports, though designed to celebrate the values of the prevailing social order, can occasionally develop anti-capitalist political overtones, though they are usually muted. The wealthy owners of franchises with consistently losing records are often portrayed in less than flattering terms by the fans and even the media. Nobody likes a loser!

How should the hypothetical "good communist" look at sports? If you've developed an appreciation for a particular sport, I see no problem with enjoying excellence on the field of play. The "fan" of a particular franchise, however, can only be seen as a sad case...he (only occasionally she) is at the complete mercy of businessmen who will extract without remorse every dime they can out of the hapless bastard. Even worse off is the "collector" of sports trinkets...who will buy anything with "his" team's name on it...rather like a dummy in the middle ages buying amulets that were actually blessed by a real saint (yes, true, no kidding, genuinely authentic). I hope this doesn't describe anyone at che-lives.

Meanwhile, Play Ball!

:cool:

[Towelly]

Well from a European point of view American sport seems specifically designed for television.In Europe and the rest of the world soccer seems to take the place of wars for a violent outlet.Don`t know if this means anything to you yanks but the Glaswegian Old Firm match is the worst example of this.
I also agree Blibblob it`s just a shameless display of ignorance to confus the ruling junta with it`s citizens.

[Blibblob]

The world must be coming to an end...

People have agreed with me.

[Pete]

:biggrin:

Perhaps Blibblob. And the snow was melthing 2 months early.

[Blibblob]

well, i wouldnt know that, i live in florida...

[Pete]

I like your avatar
I am in south-central ontario

[Blibblob]

:)

its a painful avatar, dont wear it on your arm and walk into school...

[Dhul Fiqar]

I'd say the new opiates are the actual opiates ;)

--- G.

[Blibblob]

lol, lay off the drugs, how is that supposed to make you a better communist?

[canikickit]

It is entertainment but you don`t go to the cinema and start chanting for Frodo Baggins,do you?

No, I chanted for Sauron.


If people paid as much attention to whats going on in the U.N,W.T.O or even local government as they do to televised sport I could`nt imagine governments getting away with forcefeeding us the same level of bullshit they do now.

That wouldn't happen even without televised sports.


The combination of all the different bullshit is the opium of the people.

[Blibblob]

"No, I chanted for Sauron. "

Why!?! Sauron is the capitalist. Dont you know what that book is? The majority doesnt. Its pretty much simplicity, and a bit of communism. The ring was industrialization and capitalism. And they had to destroy it. If only it pertained to today....

[Dhul Fiqar]

Opium is the religion of the masses

[canikickit]

Dont you know what that book is?

Yes, it's a pile of utter crap. A waste of trees.


Dhul Fiqar is the mass of the religious.

[Blibblob]

Well, its not an entire peice of crap. Dune was far better, but, its not even funny for a communist to say he would root for Sauron... *too far*

[canikickit]

Of course it's not funny. I take this shit seriously. I want to have Sauron's babies.

[Blibblob]

...

[Dhul Fiqar]

Man, I could really use some opium right now.....

[Guardia Bolivariano]

Quote: from Blibblob on 6:36 pm on Feb. 22, 2003
lol, lay off the drugs, how is that supposed to make you a better communist?


It makes you forget you live in a capitalist world.In doing so everything you do is communist.

[4514]

sports bring people together, its one of the only times you'll get a maori kiwi and european kiwi person cheering together and not caring about colour/race.
unity is always a good thing.

[Dhul Fiqar]

Drugs are good, 'mmmkay? This issue has long been settled. The supreme court endorses drug use, scientists say they are good for you, and it's in the Bible and the Quran and whatever book the Buddha wrote that you have to use them or you'll go to heck (hell is reserved for capitalists) ;)

--- G.

[canikickit]

sports bring people together, its one of the only times you'll get a maori kiwi and european kiwi person cheering together and not caring about colour/race.
unity is always a good thing.

I never thought about it that way before. Like the Nazis, they were unified, weren't they?

The point is sports can distract from more important issues.