Sports: The Pseudo-Wars September 13, 2007
Posted by Michael in Sports.trackback
In a post below about the haka, Skinbad said:
Sports psychology is interesting.
I’m thinking, not so much. The psychology is actually pretty simple. Sports are designed to engage lower brain stem activity.
All sports have the same function — they are an alternative to war. Sporting events function to channel male violence into non-lethal and rule-bound environments. They give the testosterone an outlet that the average guy can participate in vicariously.
For example, Michigan and Ohio have not recently launched military attacks against each other, thanks to the annual Michigan/Ohio football showdown. (Ohio should be grateful for this, because the Michigan National Guard could whup Ohio’s ass easy.)
This is why men get so passionate about sports. It’s also why men really don’t give a shit about women’s sports, unless there’s a hot chick involved. Women aren’t going to start a war anyway.
*looks at scoreboard*
Hey Michael…you want to put some holes in paper with lead this weekend? I’ve got to practice, I’m going to a CCW class in a few weeks.
I also need to talk to the Powder Room folks about “The First Annual Innocent Bystanders Pistol Party”.
Your not doing anything Saturday afternoon, are you?
Michigan is actually playing a team we can beat this Saturday.
Your not doing anything Saturday afternoon, are you?
Nope. Shoot me an email.
When it comes to the sports, the amount of action that occurs in the bean is rather low.
I wouldn’t say (I was a hell of a catcher (my big brother was ONE HELL OF A PITCHER, in fact, I think he would hurt most mitts of most adults in normal life, and I learned to catch from him(AS IN BASEBALL YOU PERVERTS!!!)))) that the bean is insignificant, actually, it’s important, especially if you are filling a secondary position.
A Catcher MUST sit still, creating a window that doesn’t exist, outside the pitchers window, and then move into the pitchers window at the last moment, to not just confuse the batter, but also the ump.
Also, my sport of choice was wrestling, and while there is a LOT of physical involved in wrestling, Folk, or freestyle, (grecko was way to gay, also, I see it as a compensatory sport for out of season footballers) You are alone in Wrestling, and if you doubt, you move slow, or you move too fast, and you screw up.
Now Football? There’s a LOT of bean involved in football. Not only must you risk the destruction of your body on the line, but also you must act without knowledge in the block, and if you have ANY doubts, the line and the blocks won’t be strong enough to allow the actors to act.
If you are an actor, (recievers, ends, backs QB’s etc) and you overthink the failures of your line and blockers, then you won’t be able to act properly.
I explained this to T one time. Football, is War on a small selfish scale, but it has the same requirements. Everyone MUST do what they are assigned to do if anything is to be accomplished, and everyone TRUSTS that everyone else will do what they are assigned to do, to accomplish that.
And to quote my former australian girlfriend who is the love of my life “Maybe thats why I don’t get it, it’s all about the military for you.”
“maybe for me, but not for the rest, love, but That IS how to win. All for one and all that shit, as you english people say.”
“I’M NOT A FUCKING POMM!!!!” I think was her response, but she knew I was fucking with her.
Michigan is actually playing a team we can beat this Saturday.
They have Pop Warner football in Michigan?
DubyaPee: You were a catcher? I figured you for more of a pitcher, but hey; whatever floats your boat, amigo.
This is good mental floss…thinking about these Pseudo-Wars like Hakka, sports, and even the function of the military. In all cases there are elements of power, force, protection, safety, survival, and even human biological chemistry, and emotion.
I think even our military is a version of this — displaying for others our potential to do serious damage to opponents, and using it if necessary.
In the military, we enlist, commission, and develop individuals to work as a team to be killers — if necessary — to protect the home court, the pack, the people and things in our own community, at the risk of injuring or destroying our enemy or opponent. Our basic needs are safety and survival. But we expect our military to conform to rules and to not use force inappropriately.
We don’t mind Hakka as long as it doesn’t cause athletes to actually start a fight off the playing field. We want healthy competition in football, soccer, rugby, chess? etc. as an outlet for our base needs as long as it keeps us from waging war on those outside our village or community. We expect players to follow the rules and guidelines.
It seems to all boil down to a need to protect one’s own and choosing a way to do it which is the lesser of evils.
Brew — Cubbies!!! First place baby!!!
Michigan plays Notre Dame, the only team in the nation that is underachieving as much as we are.