As stress relief? or as war games? as a (mostly) healthy way of using excess energy? How bout the culture of sports, is this necessary? IE thousands of people will cram into a stadium and take so much pride and bragging rights in how "their" teams play. Are there any other reasons you can think of to why sports may or may not be necessary? If they are necessary, are there any changes to the culture that you think we'd benefit from? If they are not necessary, what might take their place as a dominant part of human entertainment/leisure?
hardly anything we do outside of eating, sleeping, building shelter and hunting (replace with work if you want to earn money to buy food and shelter) is necessary... Its a form of entertainment and for athletes its a form of achievement and skill...thats pretty much it...why do people ride 4wheelers on the weekends? why do people go for walks in the woods or paint pictures? because they enjoy it....sports is the same, its just its also competition as well (and in some art forms there's competition as well) Think about music, why do people pack stadiums and amphitheaters to see someone play music? Wear Tshirts of the artist and other merchandise, brag about how great they are and how you should listen to them as well and how their better than whatever artist you like....because they enjoy it in some form or fashion So outside of surviving, hardly anything we do is necessary
i watch some sports like football and occasionally rugby just to admire the physical prowess of these guys. like i wish i could do some of that shit. throw a ball a fucking quarter mile away. but i love motor-sports more than anything. not necessarily NASCAR either... i got really into old Group B Rally footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDRkHXMHqFo but like i said. physical prowess. controlling a machine at these speeds in the dirt?!?! admirable.
They are very necessary. How else will we distract the masses from what's really going on in the world? How will we distract them from finding their true self?
I do like watching sports but I lament the competitive and loathing level that they play them at. I hate when players boast, brag, taunt. It's sad. Just play the game. Sports were cooler back in the 60's before the egos got too out of control. If we didn't pay our athletes so much. If we didn't worship our athletes so much. If we thought of them on an even level as regular people. Meanwhile playing sports for recreational, for exercise and for fun rather than to prove who's the best. Enlightenment teaches love and compassion. It makes me sad when someone yells at the players on the TV. Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan and I enjoy when my team wins but I don't beat myself up and the players when a loss happens. No I don't think it's necessary for energy. Meditation can release energy. And I don't think aggression is necessary period. I don't think sports are necessary. They're just entertainment. And a profession for some. But once again we live in our tribal instincts that whoever is bigger, stronger, faster, mightier is the best in the society. Which is what sports entails to us I believe. We are evolutionary wired to admire the tip top athletes. One day we may become too smart for sports, but we're not there yet.
I find it stupid how much athletes get paid way too fucking much money for just playing a damn sport.
i mostly agree with this, however I do think aggression is simply part of the human condition. I believe participation in sports is a wonderful outlet for that where one can release this in a friendly and fun way. Meditation can do wonders, yes, but i'm not sure its enough to empty the well (so to speak) on a daily basis. i play sports, i also run for fun, and workout a little. i also practice yoga and when i'm doing all these things i feel amazing, when i'm not I do feel like I have energy left over. This leftover energy that builds up can make me feel really bad sometimes and may or may not be why we see so much aggression in the world (I THINK it is). On the other hand, I find it increasingly difficult to watch sports. I can't even take pleasure in watching the Chicago Bulls anymore (despite that they play quality basketball) because I simply don't have a connection to them. I don't know any of those people, hell most of them aren't even from Illinois, yet they get paid millions to 'represent' Chicago. As a sidenote, I think this may be different if the Chicago Bulls were filled with Chicago athletes representing Chicago. I think that would be cool. I do too, however it's us (not literally, but the mass public) that pays their checks. It's the 25 thousand people that show up at the stadium for every basketball game. It's the 60 thousand people at every football game. And it's the millions of others who plop their asses on the couch every sunday and watch football. This statement is so common that athletes get paid too much but honestly it's a really simple solution....
Too bad people are so brain dead they think it's actually entertaining to watch a sport than play it, America wouldn't be so fat if everyone was actually playing football instead of watching it.
They're healthy (well some of them kill you quicker) and they generate a ton of money... what's wrong with that? And really a tribal identity isn't a new phenomena that sports created. If you were Roman, you were a proud Roman... if you were a Carthaginian you proudly hailed yourself from Carthage... etc. Today we can say our sports team beat the crap out of your sports team instead of my country destroyed yours.
Nope. We could all be chilling in heaven like everything was golden. No matter how they try to make the world have differences, we are all one being.
I think you're right about aggression being necessary. Well releasing it. We just all have some anger built up and it's good to release it. Some do it with a punching bag, some do it with sports, others like me doing it making music and stuff. It's when you're beating your wife that it's bad. Thanks for your post I actually had a discussion with a guy today about releasing aggression and he was impressed with my input on it thanks to your post. Peace .