[lbo-talk] Katha Pollit

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Nov 25 20:44:09 PST 2011


Look, organized sports are rather terrible for the athletes; and given the average length of an athlete's career (especially in football) and the physical damage done his body, athletes are not paid very well. Is Real Sprts still on HBO. I can't see the TV screen anymore so I don't know, but it was one of the best shows on TV.

Carrol

-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of cgreen7223 at aol.com Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 8:33 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Katha Pollit

Mencken's statement may lack nuance, not the first time that he's lacked that. But I agree sports are way over-emphasized in this society. I may come with some baggage on this as I, for the most part, displayed extreme lack of coordination as a child and was reknowned amongst my peers for lack of athletic prowess. I got bullied by some jocks and developed something of an antipathy toward athletes. At the same time, as a child, I assiduously followed pro-sports and, like a good American male, had visions of someday, somehow succeeding as an athlete. I developed the thinking then and still believe now that the accomplishments of one's mind are infinitely more important than feats of physical prowess.

After losing track of pro sports during my high school years, I've been following baseball and football to a lesser extent for about ten years now and I play fantasy sports. But I do agree with Chomsky's opinon on sports. Sports are essentially meaningless and the irrationality, commercialism, vulgarity violence and cruelty it produces seems more frigthening to me than that produced in other fields of society.

I follow the Seattle Mariners but why? Why not root for some other gang of douchebag millionaires? Probably because it is the hometown team and I've been regularly following their games on radio and TV since the late 80's. They are the only team that is regularly available on TV and radio in my area. I guess I follow baseball because I'm interested in the sociology of it, the strategy, personalities, etc.

Sports can be a harmless leisure activity but all too frequently it features alot of horrible stuff. Sit amongst the Jets fans at Giant stadium and watch men spill beer on each other and fight and throw things at women who refuse to flash their breasts.

The answer is probably not to ban sports but to get people more interested in class-counscious activities so their energies might be diverted toward more important ends.

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