Too Much
Jim Sullivan
Karl
Marx got it wrong. "... religion," he wrote in his Contribution
to a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right: Introduction, "is
the opiate of the people,..." However, that isn't correct.
At least in America, sports is the opiate of the people.
You
want proof? Just look at a typical community's daily newspaper.
Once a week, it has a whole section devoted to faith for its religious
readers. That's nice but every day the paper publishes a sports
section replete with TV and radio sports schedules, final scores of the
games played, feature articles on sports (baseball, football, hockey, lacrosse),
sportsmen (Barry Bonds and Shaq O'Neal), and women (Venus Williams and
Danica Patrick), plus numerous sports action photos, mostly for some reason
of pitchers and quarterbacks. Why, in these times of competitive
media, would any sane (or insane) editor (discounting atheists and/or sports
zealots, of course) go seven days a week with the subject of sports and
only one day a week with the subject of religion? The answer is obvious.
There's far more interest (and, thus, far more profit) in sports.
The same thing is true of other media, too, like radio and TV. Much
more time is devoted to sports, especially before and after game analysis
— seven days a week — than to religion on Sundays, regardless of the denomination,
sect, or cult. Admittedly, some stations and channels are dedicated
exclusively to religion, particularly of the Christian variety. However,
there's certainly more coverage given to sports. If attendance at
church services is compared to attendance at sports arenas, then there
isn't any doubt that sports events generally draw a larger crowd.
Gate receipts from sports events definitely come out far ahead of collection
plate totals from churches.
Sporting
events don't have any serious relevance to anyone's life unless, of course,
one is participating in the games or gambling on them. Nevertheless,
paying attention to sports isn't bad, in and of itself, if it's limited
to 15 or 20 minutes per day. Certainly there's little harm in following
one's local team or favorite player. However, enough is enough.
Several hours a day is just too much time away from the few leisure moments
that most people have after their workdays are over. If those all-too-brief
minutes are dedicated exclusively to sporting events, then individuals
won't have the time to digest the news of the day.
That's
a problem. For many people who dabble in it, religion might be an
opiate. However, that isn't what dulls the senses of most U.S. citizens.
It is sports that keeps the minds of U.S. citizens disengaged from reality,
keeps them mentally asleep to what's going on around them, and keeps them
oblivious to the larger world out there. Sports keeps U.S. citizens
from thinking about what their government officials are doing to them.
U.S. citizens are, consequently, in a fog. It can mostly be blamed
on their preoccupation with watching sports. That preoccupation keeps
U.S. citizens from thinking about what's important.
After
all, U.S. citizens have a certain responsibility to pay attention to what's
going on around them and all over the globe. The importance of that
responsibility is as great as voting, paying taxes, serving in the military,
performing public service work, serving on a jury, and all of the rest.
So, just start paying more attention to the news, like what's going on
in Iraq, in Iran, in North Korea, and in Washington DC. Start discussing
it with others and mulling it over. Only then can you become an informed
American who can give meaningful guidance to elected politicians and governmental
bodies.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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May 2008 |
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