Sports and Television as convenient distractions from Politics

Debator

"Why do I care if my high school wins the football game? Cheering for the high school football team makes no sense. I don’t know anyone on the team. Their victory in a football game has no tangible benefit to me or any of the supporters. It’s a form of senseless jingoism. It’s a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority."

I'm paraphrasing Noam Chomsky here in his book the Manufacturing of Consent. Basically he is saying that sports in general are for morons. People will spend buckets of money following their arbitrarily chosen team, buying the kit, tickets to the games, merchandise etc. They invest emotionally in their team, hence the pathetic scenes of wimps crying when Manchester United lose a game. Ditto for television shows like X-factor where the public squander money voting for strangers and get into arguments about who should win the carefully scripted competition. But why?

Politicians must love it. Football and reality TV provide a distraction from the real issues that actually affect people's lives and divert attention away from politics and newspapers. Hence how our leaders can get away with increasing taxes with no benefits to services. Joe Soap will get angry for 5 minutes but will inevitably lose attention as the football match begins and the pub comes calling.

What do you think? Is Chomsky just another leftie crank who should move to North Korea if he doesn't like life in the West? I'm not sure I agree with him 100% but he has a point about the public investing so much time into celebrity culture and reality TV. Imagine how much better our society could be if this energy was channeled more effectively.

Micky Dolenz

People watch for the fun of it.

You could apply your logic to any hobby or down time activity.

9959

I believe Umberto Eco has made similar noises.
It's just brainy blokes 'banging on'.

Debator

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

People watch for the fun of it.

You could apply your logic to any hobby or down time activity.

They're Chomsky's words.
Shouldn't business come before pleasure? Shouldn't we make sure that starving children in Africa have some food before you open that third bag of cheetos while watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians?

antodeco

I wonder did Jesus play any sports?

Daithi 1

Listen to this op..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjGj77wG-4

9959

antodeco wrote: »

I wonder did Jesus play any sports?

'Keepy uppies' when he walked on water.

Ulysses Gaze

Shouldn't we make sure that starving children in Africa have some food before you open that third bag of cheetos

Shouldn't the leaders of those African countries be more concerned with that instead of arming their private armies with AK-47s, Tanks and whatnot while they also rip off the treasuries of their own states?

mikemac1

And what do the academic elites do for downtime?

Opera? Fine wine? Art?

I don't judge his past-times

antodeco

9959 wrote: »

'Keepy uppies' when he walked on water.

If he played Golf would he get "Holys in one"?

MayoForSam

So long as the masses get enough dough in every week from whatever source for beer, pizza, a Sky Sports sub (or broadband and a good streaming source for those a bit more clued in) and a largish flat screen in the corner of the front room, then the authorities can rest assured that no-one will be out marching in the steets.

I doubt the if the country could afford to invest in any water cannon at this stage so they want to preserve the status quo as long as possible.

Although if Michael Noonan has his way, then the Sky Sports sub may have to go to pay for the property tax and reality TV shows will rule supreme.

123 LC

antodeco wrote: »

If he played Golf would he get "Holys in one"?

off topic, but, 99,999 posts :O

mike65

I stopped at Noam Chomsky.

9959

mike65 wrote: »

I stopped at Noam Chomsky.

Move on, next stop the searing insights of Marty Morrissey.

dvpower

Debator wrote: »

Politicians must love it. Football and reality TV provide a distraction from the real issues that actually affect people's lives and divert attention away from politics and newspapers.

Why would politicians love it? Unless you see politicians as some bunch of 'others', sitting in their ivory towers, stroking their cats.
Which would be moronic.

Chips Lovell

With the amount of time Bertie spent in Croker and Old Trafford, someone obviously didn't send him that memo.

LivelineDipso

Daithi 1 wrote: »

Listen to this op..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjGj77wG-4

That's a sobering video. Thanks.

When I see all these gullible Irish getting 'emotional' for British teams on the Sky Sports, you really can't argue with what this guy is saying here.

Death and Taxes

Debator wrote: »

They're Chomsky's words.
Shouldn't business come before pleasure? Shouldn't we make sure that starving children in Africa have some food before you open that third bag of cheetos while watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians?

In a word NO.

Pherekydes

Debator wrote: »

Football and reality TV provide a distraction from the real issues that actually affect people's lives...

Football (Soccer) and Reality TV are sh1t.


Next...

Capt'n Midnight

Bread and circuses


Also
SKY average revenue per customer €670

Mr. Incognito

Civil servants run the country. The politicians are convenient distractions from that.

Society will always be a pyramid because people are inheriently selfish and greedy.

wendell borton

it's nothing new, rome had the dole and the collesium , circus maximus etc.; while we have social welfare and tabloid puke to distract the plebs.

mikemac1

I wonder did the Romans discuss dole spongers too :pac:

It wasn't me!

The stupidly obvious point the likes of Chomsky are missing there is that people want and need those distractions. Without them, they're still not in a position to effect meaningful change to their political realities, but their quality of life declines significantly. The ones really fooling themselves are those who think it's the politicians who gain most from it.

BBDBB

Up your game Chomsky, stating the bleeding obvious is not groundbreaking

all spending over and above survival is designed to distract us and change our mood

Shryke

Chomsky is always looking for a reaction, which isn't a bad thing in itself. The point he raises is true and valid but his specific criticism falls short of the reality which is far more nebulous. There is nothing wrong with enjoying sport, but... He's probably right not to start fixing "but" into the argument or he'd be writing an incomprehensible monolith on human nature.
Valid critical points to give about society though. More so now than in a slower and more grounded, less media centric society that existed in the past.

Debator

Daithi 1 wrote: »

Listen to this op..
youtube video

Hi, I just got around to watching that video now. Very insightful.

For anyone who can't view the video, it basically says that nowadays sports fulfill the tribal instinct present in males. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, we use sports as an outlet for our testosterone-fueled competitiveness and rage. We work in boring, mundane office jobs during the week but at the weekend live our warrior fantasies through over-paid football stars. Modern society places these "children" on pedestals and somehow deems them worthy of millions of euros in pay. Television and radio has accelerated this phenomenon and now serves as a useful pacifier for the plebs.

Ditto for the soaps and women.

anncoates

Play - creative or not - is as important as more serious pursuits. All societies have play and sport in some fashion.

Like a lot of intellectuals on the left, he's just pissed that so many of them vested so much time lionizing the working classes as the vehicle of their class theories only for the inconsiderate proles to mostly ignore them.

Pherekydes

Debator wrote: »

Hi, I just got around to watching that video now. Very insightful.

For anyone who can't view the video, it basically says that nowadays sports fulfill the tribal instinct present in males. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, we use sports as an outlet for our testosterone-fueled competitiveness and rage. We work in boring, mundane office jobs during the week but at the weekend live our warrior fantasies through over-paid football stars. Modern society places these "children" on pedestals and somehow deems them worthy of millions of euros in pay. Television and radio has accelerated this phenomenon and now serves as a useful pacifier for the plebs.

Ditto for the soaps and women.

What a load of sexist sh1te.

Debator

Pherekydes wrote: »

What a load of sexist sh1te.

They're the words of Alan Watts in the video. Direct your venom accordingly.

mikemac1

Should have posted in Humanities forum tbh