Regarding sports—I agree that physical activity is critical to wellbeing. I agree that team sports are a good way to build community. But the non-physical benefits of sport are the lessons in perseverance, sharing, cooperation, humility, etc. They are not intrinsic to the sport, but I agree sport can be a good vehicle for learning them, so they can be a net good. But there are other activities that teach the same lessons, and at the end of the day you have something more than a score. Think Eagle Scout projects, hackathons, or Habitat for Humanity house building.
On the other hand, competitive sport can create conflict. Often the conflict is a major part of a sport culture e.g. football players who intend to injure other players, albeit within the rules. In the long run, I think these are counterproductive activities.
I think cooperative sports, or sports without head-to-head competition, e.g. rowing time trials can be good, but much less exciting to watch.
Which brings me to spectator sports. They have all the disadvantages of participatory competitive sports with none of the advantages. Is it really a net good to have millions of fans bonding with fellow fans over. game...against millions of fans who want nothing but the humiliation of your team?
Art of all kind is similar to spectator sports. But the best art teaches the invested spectator something meaningful about life. In many ways, that is the primary purpose of the best art. As far as spectator sports, I think the most you can say is that you admire a quality of a team, but it is not something easily internalized. And the commercialization and competitive emphasis makes this sort of introspection much less likely.
Regarding sports—I agree that physical activity is critical to wellbeing. I agree that team sports are a good way to build community. But the non-physical benefits of sport are the lessons in perseverance, sharing, cooperation, humility, etc. They are not intrinsic to the sport, but I agree sport can be a good vehicle for learning them, so they can be a net good. But there are other activities that teach the same lessons, and at the end of the day you have something more than a score. Think Eagle Scout projects, hackathons, or Habitat for Humanity house building.
On the other hand, competitive sport can create conflict. Often the conflict is a major part of a sport culture e.g. football players who intend to injure other players, albeit within the rules. In the long run, I think these are counterproductive activities.
I think cooperative sports, or sports without head-to-head competition, e.g. rowing time trials can be good, but much less exciting to watch.
Which brings me to spectator sports. They have all the disadvantages of participatory competitive sports with none of the advantages. Is it really a net good to have millions of fans bonding with fellow fans over. game...against millions of fans who want nothing but the humiliation of your team?
Art of all kind is similar to spectator sports. But the best art teaches the invested spectator something meaningful about life. In many ways, that is the primary purpose of the best art. As far as spectator sports, I think the most you can say is that you admire a quality of a team, but it is not something easily internalized. And the commercialization and competitive emphasis makes this sort of introspection much less likely.
Thanks for provoking some thought!