Re: The Interpretation of Sports (2 of 2)

[Adam Rose <adam@xxxxxxxx>]

>
> On Fri, 28 Jun 1996, Gary MacLennan wrote:
>
> > the best laid schemes of the creator. Sport is indeed the opiate of the
> > masses and there is it seems no solution in such cases but the radical
> > transformation of society.
> >
>
> Louis: This reminds me of a comment Noam Chomsky once made about the
> seeming lack of political consciousness in the American working-class. He
> observed that when occasionally tuning to an all-talk Sports radio
> station, he would hear men calling in who had highly subtle and carefully
> researched understandings of the minutiae of sport history. He wondered
> what would happen if politics ever captivated their imagination in the
> same way.
>
> I too enjoy listening to these talk shows, as well as follow the NY
> Yankees and Knicks. The question of the role of sports in society is a
> fascinating question. We are not talking just about bourgeois society. It
> seems that for as long as there has been social organization, there has
> been some kind of athletic competition. What was the role of
> sports in Greek antiquity as opposed to the middle ages, I wonder?
> This makes one want to take a look at CLR James' book on Cricket.
>

Greek sport was very much tied up with competition between city states and
aristocratic families. I believe, certainly in the Greek context, that
sports were in origin tied up with the physical preparations for war.
[ As did most sports in the early modern olympics : horse riding,
jumping, running, throwing, shooting, etc].

Spartan victories in the chariot race at the Olympics were held to show
the superiority of their oligarchic system, not just in sport, but also
in war. When an Athenian aristocrat won, the opportunity was taken to
argue that democracy could compete with oligarchy, and also that the
aristocrats used their wealth in the interests of the Athenian democracy,
as well as, or perhaps instead of, their own interests. When an Athenian
aristocrat got into trouble with the demos, he might well plead that his
previous victories driving or paying for chariots showed that he had the
interests of the demos at heart.

But, anything to do with horses was, because of their expense, aristocratic.
The other sports were literally hoplite ( heavy armed infantry ) sports - if
you well well fed enough and had sufficient leisure to train, but couldn't
afford to keep horses, you'd be in the hoplite class, because you would
also have been able to supply your own sword, army ( and slave to carry
them around ) in times of war.

I think an integrated system of competing states created Greek sports. Such a
system does not really apply to most of the great Empires of Antiquity - so
we do not see sports in quite the same sense as we or the Greeks would
recognise it, in say, the Roman Empire. They massacred Christians instead.

Adam.



Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK


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