jennypenny wrote:Ok, so from my avatar you can guess my opinion on the matter. Apparently, I ‘waste’ 2 hours every weekend screaming at the Liverpool game. Eh, sue me. I like it and I don’t think I should have to justify it by pointing out that I run more than 2 hours every weekend.
The other thing I don’t get is that sports fans are mocked, but people who attend plays or the opera are seen as ‘cultured’. What’s the difference? It’s still overpaying to sit in a chair and watch some talented people perform.
At one level, of course, whatever you do is fine. (Jacob’s favorite peeve : post-modernism.)
But you ask : why target Joe Gamewatcher alone as a numbskull? Why shouldn’t that apply to Cecil Operagoer as well? Hadn’t thought about it, actually, but yes, I suppose I do differentiate between those two animals. As also between Gamewatcher and Bookreader (although there obviously points of similarity, all three essentially watch rather than do, at least when in that role). In strictly my own personal opinion, the compulsive Cinemagoer is a close cousin of the inveterate Gamewatcher, although even Cinemagoer would look Einstein-ish standing next to Gamewatcher. I refer, needless to say, only to the actual Gamewatching portion of Gamewatcher’s overall identity, and recognize that it is certainly possible that the same person, while acting like a bit of a dunce in one respect, may well be a veritable genius in another respect (or many other respects).
Watching sports is more like watching a reality show, than like going to the opera or reading a book. (I suppose spectator sport *is* a reality show, literally.) Now I suppose watching a reality show, as a sort of novelty, or as a sort of occasional exercise in observation, may have its legitimate use. But surely you will agree that someone spending hours every week watching reality shows on television is not exactly optimal use of time? (In so much, that is, as we can dictate to another what their optimal use of anything is, which we can’t, but that’s post-modernism making an entry again.) And now if you see someone who not only spends hours every week watching reality shows, but also spends serious money on it, and to cap it all dances around and celebrates and throws parties and goes around talking about it when their favorite reality show character has done well (however reality shows define ‘doing well’), and what is more go around buying overpriced merchandise with that character’s name and face on it, and starts fan clubs, well, wouldn’t you be tempted to gently slip them the name and number of some shrink?
Now no disrespect to you personally, Jenny, or to your avatar/motif, or to your favorite past-time (or, God forbid, to your Team!) : but how is this different?
I am sure there was a time when you, like Jane Doodahbuyer, used to find life’s meaning in buying all kinds of stuff and experiences, and then working your backside off to fund those purchases. At least to some extent. Before you moved to frugality and non-consumerism, and finally to full-blown ERE. Well, why not at least re-examine your emulation of Joe Gamewatcher’s habits as well? I find the very same patterns in both cases, and submit that the game-watching (especially emotionally-invested game-watching) is nothing but consumerism in miniature (replacing actual fulfillment with purchased goods and experiences and stereotyped templates).
If you’ve read what I’ve said earlier, you see that I have no problem with what you choose to do. That we shouldn’t have problems with what others do (except in some cases, but forget that qualification for now), that was precisely what I was saying just a while ago. But you did ask why spectator sports is different from the opera or the theatre, so my 20 cents.
I do realize that I haven’t directly answered your question, which was Why attack just the spectator sports addict? I have only given some analogies, and expressed my own opinion in some detail. But I suspect you already agree with what I’m saying (at least intellectually, and irrespective of whether you actually change your avatar).
We tend to get very productivity focused on here.
