(April 16, 2017 at 11:51 am)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:Today it is "Just a flesh wound, just a flesh wound"....... Everyone cries over a scraped knee. People get so bent out of shape over death. It's like our species morality changed or something.
Well....
then there's hockey.
I don't care what the sport is, if it has any contact, all of them can and do produce injury. By the time these guys make it to the pro level, they have been through a meat grinder on their bodies. Many end up having severe health problems after they leave and many end up broke a few years after leaving.
I won't lie, I do like the NFL and sometimes college basketball, used to like NHL until they put adds under the ice. But even outside sports, there is too much nonsense about everything in life always have to be quick satisfaction and brawn. It isn't that one should stop all of it, just not enough balance in understanding the difference between fast competition, and pragmatic long term thinking. If NASA's scientists thought like pro sports coaches and jocks we never would have gotten to the moon. Some things require more thinking and mechanical redundancy in planning to meet a goal.
We should not be teaching every kid they will end up on top, in anything, not just sports. In business or acting or music ect ect. It is ok to try, and who knows, but the math simply isn't there for everyone to end up on top. And even with middle class and low income work, our bodies are not something you abuse and think there will be no long term effects.
I do think sports is fine, but it should not be defined as the most glorified thing in a society. Most people simply need a good education livable wages and balance. I see too much of entertainment and sports media and even movies, painting humans as always needing to be super human, and the truth is, we are not.
The NFL lied about head injuries in the same way big Tobacco lied about smoking. And I have met in my life several jocks who aspire to make it big but one injury and that ends it, then they have nothing to fall back on and needlessly blame themselves for their failure. I had a co worker who was a line backer long ago in high school, his knees and back were fucked up and he had pain pill addiction and was an alcoholic for a while.
We sell far too much in society utopias. I don't think speed and brawn prove anything but speed and brawn, and are really only 1 attribute of evolution. Again, it isn't that you can or should rid the world of diverse humans whom have different desires and goals, you cant. But I think my species can be far too unrealistic. The good guy does not always win, the boy does not always get the girl, and most people if lucky can pay their bills and save some money long term.