I’ve watched sport over many years, as a window into a culture we’re still not seeing or understanding.
Victory now creates utter euphoria. Defeat has professionals in tears, with crowds either silent or overwhelmed with euphoria themselves.
A culture in plain sight.
/1
Victory now creates utter euphoria. Defeat has professionals in tears, with crowds either silent or overwhelmed with euphoria themselves.
A culture in plain sight.
/1
Team sports culture. Kidult culture, the now entrenched imitative rivalry of competing groups or teams, not just in sport, but in every part of life.
The culture of the schoolyard. Status battles, for identity.
/2
The culture of the schoolyard. Status battles, for identity.
/2
Long gone are the days where both winner and loser shook hands politely, both smiling, celebrating a ‘good game’. Where crowds applauded both competitors.
Everything, in sport and outside it, is now resolutely ‘partisan’.
/3
Everything, in sport and outside it, is now resolutely ‘partisan’.
/3
Winners fall to the ground in ecstasy, while losers sit with head in hands, dejected, even crying. This is a fundamentally different culture at work.
As used to be commonly said, ‘it’s just a game’.
Not any more.
/4
As used to be commonly said, ‘it’s just a game’.
Not any more.
/4
Crowds explode into deafening rapture when their team succeeds, or into literal total silence when they fail.
A tipping point was passed some time ago where this long ceased to be about watching a game. These are battles for status.
/5
A tipping point was passed some time ago where this long ceased to be about watching a game. These are battles for status.
/5
Both players and supporters are at war, for their status and therefore (as social animals) their identity.
Feel the depth of the emotion at these modern events now. The hysteria of emotion. Team sports societies, revealed in sport and elsewhere.
/6
Feel the depth of the emotion at these modern events now. The hysteria of emotion. Team sports societies, revealed in sport and elsewhere.
/6
Societies with weak or non-existent institutional status hierarchies, where every individual now battles for recognition and status. For their very identity.
‘Tribalism’ some call it, but it’s a weak concept. It’s about status. Humans crave it above all else.
/7
‘Tribalism’ some call it, but it’s a weak concept. It’s about status. Humans crave it above all else.
/7
Take away formal ways of recognising and regulating status, and they will invent other ways to achieve and maintain it.
We live in societies of rampant status-seeking now, at every level and in every activity. Fractal imitative rivalry.
/8
We live in societies of rampant status-seeking now, at every level and in every activity. Fractal imitative rivalry.
/8
As gods proliferated in some ancient cultures, we are polytheistic again now. A world of proliferating ‘influencers’.
Reaching clumsily and unknowingly for a new monotheism. A new King or God. Trump is that, for some.
/9
Reaching clumsily and unknowingly for a new monotheism. A new King or God. Trump is that, for some.
/9
Sold pap ideas for decades about democracy as the supposed continuous agitation of crowds, battling for status, and sick of it.
People want the stability of status hierarchies back, and will invent them if not offered alternatives. That’s why we have Trump.
/end
People want the stability of status hierarchies back, and will invent them if not offered alternatives. That’s why we have Trump.
/end
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