(fwd from John Croft) Sport

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ Non-member submission from [John Croft <mfmxhjcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]]

I seem to have lost the recent posts on sport (and opera) as opiate, so
I apologise if this has been mentioned -- but I couldn't help but be
reminded of Adorno and Horkheimer's comment, "Amusement in advanced
capitalism is the extension of work. It is sought after by those who
wish to escape the mechanised work process, in order to be able to face
it again...Sport restores to mankind some of the functions which the
machine has taken away from him, but only to regiment him remorselessly
in the service of the machine." (Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp. 137ff).
I think that if sport can play this role, then opera can too, but I
think in art there is both that which promotes passive acquiescence and
that which engages one's capacity for critical thought. Apart from the
obvious localised patriotism encouraged by sport, there is another
significant difference between sport and opera, namely the nerdish
obsession that is engendered -- you not only watch the games, you also
read the half of the daily paper devoted to it, collect the
football-player figurines, fill in the score charts... I would be
surprised if spectator sport didn't have a significant passifying and
stultifying function.

John



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