Sports, Tribalism and Worldview

This article will probably reveal some obvious personal insecurities, but I well remember my first week at college. I remember how the most attractive women seemed to gravitate to the big jocks and I suffered quite a lot of rejection as I manifested the superficial preferences of the Playboy philosophy.

My high school did not have a football team, but Tufts University did and there were several freshman recruits in my freshman suite. I remember coming back from the library after studying to find the living room trashed as they had had a wrestling tournament in my absence.

I have to confess that I love watching football, especially the pros, but there is little doubt about what the cost of idolizing sports stars and other “celebrities” has done to our culture.

This has led to a trend of anti-intellectual and anti-science bias as universities pay for their research arms with the income from sports, especially football and basketball.

Epic Social Commentary by Tom Wolfe

Years ago, I read I Am Charlotte Simmons, a novel by Tom Wolfe, that wonderfully captured the imbalance between sports and academics in American life. The protagonist was a young woman from a small town who attended a large university and was oblivious to the heroics of the campus athletes. When she becomes a tutor to a basketball star always surrounded by groupies, who lives in a separate apartment building with its own chef, they have a relationship which demonstrates how the jocks live compared to ordinary students, and how they are treated as Gods.

What this has fostered in our society is a culture of intense competition versus cooperation; and the broad acceptance of Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest has exacerbated the way the professional sports culture, in particular, has impacted our lives in America, and now the world at large.

Winning is everything.

We have these huge stadiums filled with thousands of screaming fans, full of booze and gambling, and focused entirely on the external world – the field of course, the giant screen and the loud, drumbeat music. When a TV camera finds a group they feel the need to yell, scream and gesticulate like wild animals.

Sports is paying millions to the university but what do they contribute to values of introspection or contemplation. Does any spectator have the mental space to sit back and say, “Wow, here I am in this amazing place. Who am I?”

A Rise of Tribalism

Instead of a life of the mind, the sports craze has fostered intense tribalism, both in college and as professional teams, composed of mercenary athletes, purport to represent municipalities and their stadiums are subsidized by taxes that could be used for humanistic purposes.

As the Wolfe novel dramatizes so well, this has also led to the insane growth of celebrity status for successful athletes to the detriment of recognition of other attributes, like brains.

The problem is that this tribalism has also promoted a sense of the need to dominate rather than just win, and the adulation of only the champion -- so that a silver or bronze medal is hardly even recognized, except in the case of athletes that have overcome some personal adversity to generate interest in the media.

I believe that this quest for domination is the essence of the Paternalistic trend in our society, as a force for false masculinity at the expense of any divine femininity.

It has also led to xenophobia and the promotion of white supremacy, which is ironic since the same trend has served to elevate the financial status of great athletes of other ethnicities.

Ancient Cultures were Somewhat Different

It is interesting to compare today’s Olympics with the contests of the ancient Greeks. A few years ago, I was appalled as fans loved the utter domination by the U.S. professional basketball “Dream Team” over less experienced countries, and especially in the way America rubbed it in opponents’ faces.

Interestingly, the world has caught up, and there are some amazing pro basketball players from Europe and Africa that have equalized the competition but again emphasizing only the external physical attributes of the players over any other important qualities.

And of course, the Ancient Olympics did not have commercial sponsorships. Winners received olive wreaths and fame, often leading to political advantages and gifts upon returning home, but they did not become conglomerates like today’s top athletes.

Our modern Olympics, by contrast, are heavily commercialized with corporate sponsorships, broadcasting rights (NBC paid $7.75 billion for rights from 2022-2032), merchandise, and professional athletes.

We Pay a Steep Price for this Distortion

All of this has led to a terrible distortion of priorities among young people. It is bad enough among young men, but with young women the same commercialism and celebrity culture has led to body shaming and severe mental problems.

Of course, these distorted values have also led to unbridled materialism as opposed to any appreciation for mental abilities or spiritual attributes that students might also possess. And it has made the need to dominate, a main Paternalistic attribute, a sought-after value in our society, which has carried over into our relationship with the natural world.

It’s hard to see a solution given today’s material reality, and the influence of the corporate media in promoting and selling these cultural values; they are embedded deeply in our society.

The one silver lining I have noted, however, is that it has led to the acceptance of different cultures as their athletes succeed and the reduction of racism in some areas as white audiences have come to accept black and Latino athletes, as long as they are winners. There is also some wonderful sportsmanship displayed at the end of contests where millionaire winners shake hands with the millionaire losers.

This imbalance has created a great strain on our culture as only certain traits are valued among men and women, to the exclusion of an appreciation for the many other skills and attributes necessary for a successful and democratic society.

When we do see some of the shifts in philosophy that many of us are working for and hope to experience, it would seem that a return to a more normal valuation of athletic prowess as compared to other characteristics might happen.