Why I don’t watch the Olympics
My dad just walked in and informed me that the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics just started and told me to tune the TV in to watch the live telecast of it. I told him that I’ve zero interest in the Olympics whatsoever.
Being a spectator of sports has never interest me, even though I might enjoy the sport itself. I enjoyed playing soccer after school hours when I was in secondary school with my classmates, but I’ve only watched the World Cup once. I don’t know any of the players personally, so who cares which team wins? It doesn’t affect me in any possible way.
A favorite author of mine, Noam Chomsky, sums up how I feel towards such events well, and I couldn’t put my feelings in better words than he did. I’ve been reading Noam Chomsky since late 2006, when a book of his was recommended by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela during a speech at the UN. The following is what he said in the book, Manufacturing Consent (online excerpt available here).
Take, say, sports — that’s another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view. For one thing because it — you know, it offers people something to pay attention to that’s of no importance. [audience laughs] That keeps them from worrying about — [applause] keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something about. And in fact it’s striking to see the intelligence that’s used by ordinary people in [discussions of] sports [as opposed to political and social issues]. I mean, you listen to radio stations where people call in — they have the most exotic information [more laughter] and understanding about all kind of arcane issues. And the press undoubtedly does a lot with this.
You know, I remember in high school, already I was pretty old. I suddenly asked myself at one point, why do I care if my high school team wins the football game? [laughter] I mean, I don’t know anybody on the team, you know? [audience roars] I mean, they have nothing to do with me, I mean, why I am cheering for my team? It doesn’t mean any — it doesn’t make sense. But the point is, it does make sense: it’s a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority, and group cohesion behind leadership elements — in fact, it’s training in irrational jingoism. That’s also a feature of competitive sports. I think if you look closely at these things, I think, typically, they do have functions, and that’s why energy is devoted to supporting them and creating a basis for them and advertisers are willing to pay for them and so on.
That, my friends, is truism.
I dieagree. Though I don’t watch sports myself, I think its perfectly reasonable to be a fan. My sister lives in New York and is a rabid Yankees fan, she goes to see them when she can. Why? Because she’s a New Yorker, and it’s part of being in the New York community. Every year I go to my niece’s dance recital in the Bronx. This is an overwhelmingly Latino part of NYC, and though most people’s families come from Puerto Rico, there’s plenty from Mexico and South America. But the first thing the MC asks is, who’s a Yankees fan? Who’s a Mets fan? And who likes the (boo! hiss!) Red Sox?
People from a hundred different backgrounds are all brought together by things like this. Without shared experiences, like baseball here, like the Olympics everywhere, like the World Cup, all our communities would have one less thing in common, one less way in which we are alike. And wouldn’t that be sad?
You’ve got a good point about it being a common ground that brings people together.
At the same time though, it seems that people, and society in general, are putting a lot of effort into something that seems so fictional. This doesn’t apply only to sports, but to other areas of entertainment as well (for example, the amount of coverage on and people going crazy over celebrities). However, only in sports is the effect so prominent. Looking at the sports page of a newspaper, it seems that this whole activity, with the amount of analysis and commentary, has evolved into a branch of science on its own.
Maybe it’s just a part of the whole human experience that I’m missing.
More that you experience it a different way, through games or other things that are not sports. Maybe you’re into anime, or music, or who knows. Nobody is entirely disconnected.
Why not watch the Olympics? They’re often pretty exciting to watch? What’s wrong with a little national pride? And heck, this is a huge thing for China.
It’s kinda funny to think about it actually. I’ve followed all the events leading up the Olympics since the IOC awarded the position of host to China, but not the sports itself.
I don’t watch sports either, but OMG the opening ceremony was fantastic!
(allthough sometimes I do like to watch fighting, and occasionally racing.)
lol. Man. I totally agree with Noam Chomsky’s interpretation of sports. To me it feels like a total granfalloon to support teams just because they happen to come from the same city as me.
With every city I’ve lived in, I’ve almost had nothing in common with most of the people in it. I’ve always held my own theory that sports could be detrimental to technological progress (except for sport science) that could benefit way more humans.
National pride, group pride, and my most recent observation, university pride, to me are totally imaginary meaningless affiliations built up in people’s heads. Hence the term granfalloon.
On a lighter note, seeing the mass of people at my university wearing those purple “University of Washington” clothes, jackets, accessories and what not just makes me want to distance myself from that. I don’t want to make my fashion decisions based upon a granfalloon; I want to make them based on who I am.
I guess that’s why I’ve always been opposed to uniforms as well. I much prefer having a university of people making their own fashion choices based on who they are, rather based on some “blind allegiance” if you can call it that.
Just my 2 cents :)
I’m the same when it comes to school shirts too. I’ve never worn my school tshirt or jacket apart from events where they were compulsory. My black “Temasek Polytechnic” jacket is finding a new life being constantly hung at my window to help shelter my room from the sun since the curtains that my parents decided on is doing a poor job at that.
I am not a fan of sports -
But I do watch the Olympics. Number one because it’s patriotic for me to watch, and support the athletes that are there. It’s a huge deal to support my country (for me, personally, not saying everyone else is this way). They (the athletes) work really really hard at what they do.
It’s also news, I don’t want to miss something important happening in the world (like the two Americans who were stabbed in China, though it wasn’t exactly Olympic related, they were a part of it and I wouldn’t have heard about it other wise) or the war between Georgia and Russia. It’s all tied together (since they are both competing in the Olympics).
While I don’t like the ‘hero’ status bestowed on athletes or celebrities, I don’t want to remain completely ignorant of either of those things either.
While it certainly important for us to stay on top of happenings in the world (I’m quite a current affairs fanatic actually), and I do take interest in the politics behind the Olympics, I’m just giving most of the sports related articles a quick skim through, rarely going past the headlines at all.