Sports Is The Opiate Of The Masses
By Warner Todd Huston (05/26/03)
This week we learned that a young man named LeBron James will be earning (and I use the word earning euphemistically) $90 million dollars soon. Why, you ask? Is it because he discovered a cure for cancer? No. Because he invented a new source of energy, saved a country from starvation, wrote the great American novel, changed our political vision? No. He will be making this money to play a game. Yes, I said a game. A silly, pointless and childish game.
If you read this I’m going to make you angry. At least I will make the majority of you angry, anyway. Get ready ... here we go.
We heard this young man was just about to graduate from college - or high school or was it Kindergarten - and he will be stepping onto a professional basketball court for the first time in his life yet despite that fact he has been drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. You read correctly. He has never played professional sports in his life. He has no track record as a draw, as a talent or as a worthy player in professional sports. Amazing.
Now, on one hand I can say, heck, go for it LeBron. I mean, if you can get it, take it. That is the American way after all. But on the other, more sensible hand, I wonder what the heck is so off kilter in this country that this man-child can suddenly make such an obscene amount of money to play a silly game? Why do we so easily accept these people making such cash, getting such justification and getting such rapt attention? Why do we rearrange entire tax bases in our communities and place such importance on what these often half literate people say? Why do we want their autograph and spend millions of tickets, cards, and paraphernalia?
All across the country today, in fact in my very home, we are learning that favorite school teachers are being laid off because of the over spending injudiciously perpetrated by our states within our school systems. Yet this youngster is being paid $90 million to play a game? He is entrusted with nothing other than creating a little sweat and throwing an inflated hunk of rubber into a hanging net. And people who are responsible for teaching our children are being told they are not needed or their salaries are beyond the budget.
But Mr. James is not the problem. The entire sports sub culture in this country is wildly out of balance with its real importance to our daily lives. This is not a liberal thing, nor a conservative thing. Not a black nor a white thing. It is neither a religious nor an irreligious thing. It cuts across all boundaries.
I know grown men that can tell you more about the history of the New York Yankees than they can about their own country’s history. They can tell you Roger Maris’ life time batting average but could not tell you who their senator is nor who is the sitting vice president of the United States. They can eagerly discuss the upcoming Superbowl in all its statistics, personnel and rivalries but could not place Iraq, the Sudan or even Germany on the map. They know the names of entire rosters of entire seasons of entire conferences of teams of multiple sports venues but couldn’t tell you who wrote the Declaration of Independence or which countries we fought against or with in World War Two.
It is high time to stop spending such money on sports in our general lives but more specifically in our schools. Our children need to learn useful skills and the increasingly precious budgets we have for them to gain these skills should not be wasted on idiocy like sports. Sports teaches absolutely nothing that is useful in a real life situation and schools are for useful information! (I should note here, however, I do not have as much a problem with sports outside of school as much as I do wasting public money on it.)
We have all heard the canard that sports teaches “team work”, or “sportsmanship”. We have even heard that it helps one “grow up”. Nonsense. Teamwork? Hardly. It teaches that the “star” is worth something and you are not. Instead of teamwork it teaches submission. Sportsmanship? Not even close. It shows children angry parents at sports parks, loud mouthed coaches that would rather beat you down than raise you up and sponsors envy should the other team win when yours does not. Helps you grow up? A good diet is better than a good game any day of the week.
Come on people. Lets get our priorities straight, shall we? Education is a far, far better thing to spend our money on and we’d best start to do it before the rest of the world really does pass us up. Already our school systems are the easiest ones in the industrialized world to graduate from. You should see what other children in the world are being required to learn and at much earlier ages than are ours. Our children are increasingly being required to learn less and less as each year passes and it won’t be long before we are too far behind to stay the best, strongest country in the world.
Lets have them read Huck Fin instead of Sport Illustrated. Give them a science text book instead of a football helmet. Hand them a pen and paper instead of a ball and bat. Introduce them to history instead of the NBA.
(And before you go imagining that I am a 300 pound, uncoordinated, geek, I was on a championship soccer team in my teen years and played softball and baseball until my 20’s. I had plenty of sports outlets and played well enough to enjoy it. So, I am no bitter former nerd who envied the sports heroes of my schools. Besides, most of them are today still working in fast food or other entry level jobs as they were not informed that their wonderful sports abilities were useless in REAL life!)
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