In 1966 I was trained with the M-14. I was taught

[DisgustipatedinCA]

38. I've often wondered about sports fandom and war cheering and whether they're related.

I don't watch much in the way of sports. My dad is an overbearing sports-watcher, and I think he permanently cured me of it when I was growing up by screaming at anyone in front of the television, berating coaches, players, officials, and (my favorite) throwing an earthenware coffee mug from across the room into the fireplace during one New Year's Day bowl game. Anyway, he's the kind of guy who can identify with a sports team and make them "us" in just minutes. This was really evident a few years ago when he mentioned something about a US women's (volleyball?) team competing internationally. This wasn't the Olympics, and I think this team had been in the media spotlight for about a week or so (as in, no one had heard of them before that), but it didn't take my dad an hour of watching before he was using the pronoun "we" for everything regarding this team. And by the way, more power to this team, whoever they were, not my point here.

So that situation, and several other similar ones made me start to wonder about team identification in sports compared with national identification in war. I'm not trained in this area, but it seems to me these things may come from the same place, maybe the part of a person that wants to belong to the group, to the pack, to the team. I think this may have contributed to changes in my own life. Back when the first Gulf War started, I talked about Iraq in terms of Us v. Them. I was excited about the hits "we" scored on live green-screen television. I identified with the military (full disclosure: I was in the Navy, in Orlando at the time, maybe in the most non-military portion of the armed forces. So although I was part of "we", that's not where the feeling of belonging came from, or at least I don't think it is).

Nowdays, when I talk about how "we" killed someone with a drone or whatever, it's not so that I can feel a sense of belonging, but so that, as a taxpayer, I make sure to not let myself off the hook when it comes to murder committed in my name and with my money. I don't identify with a killing force that can beat the other side. I know we have it, and I know they'd win any head-to-head fight, but I don't find any glory in this, any sense of belonging, or any reason to celebrate it.

Is there a link between identification with group sports teams and warfare? I don't know the answer, but I suspect it's yes. Thank you.