Are Sports the New Opiate of the People?

[Thurston Howell IV]

This question was posed by a writer in the Financial Times this weekend. His analysis focused on English football/soccer. The article closed with this:

"You might wonder which event would draw more British television viewers: the UK going to war, or England playing a major football match on the same evening. I stopped wondering about this on the first Sunday of the Iraq war, when US tanks began their race for Baghdad.

That afternoon I visited a newspaper office in Turkey, a country at the heart of the war. In reception, porters and visitors sat glued to a television set. They were watching league football. It wasn’t even a particularly big game, for crying out loud."


In the US, we have rampant sports mania. Many people spend an amazing amount of time watching sports, memorizing the most obscure baseball statistics, talking and arguing about points which are in essence unprovable, participating in 'fantasy' leagues, betting billions of dollars each year on games, etc.

Does all this attention to sports detract people from being well-informed citizens, rendering them incapable of making thoughtful decisions regarding politics and society? In effect, does sports help keep us out of the loop on the important issues of the day? Or is this overstating the case?

[punpirate]

1. Well, in this country, it has been...

... ever since the advent of Monday Night Football.

And, in answer to the article's question, no, it's not overstating the case. People in this country are remarkably ill-informed. But, it's not just sports. It's crime reporting, reality TV, everything that media has to offer which distracts from people's daily lives.

More than a small number of the people in this country don't even know who the presidential candidates are. More don't even care.

Democracy doesn't survive in such cultural conditions.

[leesa]

2. Sports is one of them. It's like all the other marketing scams

Keep people's heads glued to the teevee or shopping or playing, etc and they won't notice their country being destroyed.

[ret5hd]

3. It always has been...

from the roman colliseums to todays football...gotta keep those people excited and distracted!

[Beam Me Up]

4. Exactly. Keep the WORKING DOPES all excited

about crap that doesn't THREATEN THE REAL STRUCTURES OF POWER.

[TahitiNut]

5. Bread and circuses

The Roman Empire continues as the model of oppression and corruption. There's something obscenely ironic about 'Christians' emulating the Romans.

[Thurston Howell IV]

6. Christians emulating the Romans

That's a good one.

[Cats Against Frist]

8. That's EXACTLY what I was going to say

I completely respect the rights of people who enjoy sporting contests. I also completely respect my right to think that it's lame and dumb, and there are too many people who care about some stupid fucking ball team, when there's other stuff to worry about. Especially high school sports. For this to take up time on an evening news broadcast, makes my spleen hurt.

But I respect their right to enjoy it...

[Nikia]

7. I don't know if I would call it that

Sports are common in most cultures from all times. They serve many purposes in culture: health, recreation, sense of community, entertainment, and developing skills to be used in other pursuits such as hunting and war. Some sports seem to be a type of war simulation like football. It is safer than war of course, bystanders usually don't get hurt, death is rare, our heros continue to fight game after game, and nothing bad happens in the scheme of things.
I think that televised contests and other mass information has allowed more people to become continually obsessed with it rather than just during the event. Sports are nothing new though and I don't think that distracting the public is one the main goals of it.

[Thurston Howell IV]

9. Media sports play a very different role than sports traditionally

There's a big difference between participating in sports and fantasy baseball, memorizing statistics, watching it 6 hours a weekend, etc.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I've been calling sports the opiate of the people

for MONTHS on DU.

Consider the fact that the average local newscasts devotes at least 1/3 of its time to sports. They might slight actual news to report a big storm, but they rarely cut back on sports.

[drdigi420]

11. I stay informed AND watch sports, btw, GO FALCONS!

Some of us CAN chew gum and walk at the same time.