Part one: a culture of apathy
The past — sports and jingoism
Ajitpaul Mangat, Staff
Why do we play sports? This fundamental query has a myriad of plausible retorts.
The human competitive drive could stem from biology as a method of practicing our inborn fight or flight instinct. In fact, the Ancient Olympic Games primarily consisted of running and fighting events. Other responses originate in the interrelated fields of sociology and anthropology. For Johan Huizinga, a cultural theorist, sport, or play, is a method of learning about one’s environment. As Huizinga says in his book Homo Ludens : “Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing.” According to Thorstein Veblen, a sociologist, sport is advantageous to the community. In his book The Theory of the Leisure Class, he says: “The physical vigor acquired in the training for athletic games . . . is of advantage both to the individual and to the collectivity.” Additionally, there is the ethos of sport: the notion that sports are played for their own sake, with sportsmanship, fellowship and ethics, rather than gamesmanship — winning at all costs.
While each of these dissonant theories is plausible, the doctrine of nationalism or patriotism — devotion and loyalty to one’s own nation — seems to link them and lie at the heart of our ubiquitous drive to play sports.
Noam Chomsky, a philosopher in the documentary film Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, says: “I remember in high school . . . I suddenly asked myself at one point, why do I care if my high school team wins the football game? . . . I mean, why I am cheering for my team? It doesn’t mean any — it doesn’t make sense. But the point is, it does make sense: it’s a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority and group cohesion behind leadership elements — in fact, it’s training in irrational jingoism. That’s also a feature of competitive sports.” Thus, for Chomsky, we play sports to build patriotism, which, over time, develops into extreme patriotism, or “jingoism.” Therefore, through sports, we practice our inborn flight or fight instincts in order to be prepared for war, we learn and are trained to submit to the collective so we will yield to authority, and we develop fellowship with other citizens and internalize the ethics of our nation so we will coalesce behind leadership. Ultimately, sports is training in jingoism.
This conjectural jingoism is personified at sporting events. The most popular events are ones involving nations, such as the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup. They are preceded and concluded by a playing of national anthems, during which time competing and then winning athletes stand and face their nation’s flag. Competing teams wear their nation’s colours and are often referred to as fighting for their country. And spectators dress in patriotic colours, display flags, and sing nationalistic songs.
Furthermore, the most competitive countries are those that are jingoistic. Over the past 20 years, four countries — America, Russia, China and Germany — have dominated the world’s most prestigious international multi-sport event — the Summer Olympic Games. America’s jingoism is presently self-evident from their aggressive foreign policy and imposing, prolific military to their “melting pot” approach to immigration and notion of “American exceptionalism”: a self-evident, nationalistic superiority. Russian, Chinese and German jingoisms have historic roots in their prevalence of communist and/or dictatorship governments, which are inherently jingoistic. It could be argued that these countries are so competitive because they have a large populace and are wealthy. Both of these facts prove true: in terms of worldwide population and gross domestic product (GDP), America is third and first, Russia is ninth and 10th, China is first and fourth, and Germany is 10th and third, respectively. However, similarly populace and prosperous, but presently less jingoistic countries, such as Japan (population: 10th, GDP: second), India (population: second, GDP: 12th) and the United Kingdom (population: 22, GDP: fifth), are less competitive winning fewer than half as many medals. Thus, the correlation between sports and jingoism appears strong.
Canada is another case-in-point. The country is similarly wealthy and prosperous (GDP: ninth), has a slighter populace (36th), but most clearly is not as jingoistic. The reasons for this marginal jingoism, or cultural apathy, are numerous. Firstly, Canada’s approach to immigration is accepting. The country allows immigrants to keep their own culture rather than conform. While this policy has made for a diverse and culturally rich country it has come at the cost of a singular Canadian culture. Secondly, Canada has not experienced many wars, as it has never initiated large-scale warfare and did not endure a civil war. This marginal martial history has prevented a coalescing of national spirit behind a commander-and-chief. Finally, Canada is a young country. Therefore, it has not had enough time to develop extreme patriotism.
The consequences of this lesser jingoism are evident in Canada’s meagre sports history. The country’s multi-centralism, lack of influential, omnipotent authority and leadership, and short athletic history has produced a country with multiple sporting interests and, as a result, no singular sporting vision. Over the past 20 years Canada has only once finished top-15 in terms of gold medals won at the Summer Olympics, never finished top-three in terms of total medals won at the smaller, less prestigious Winter Olympics, and only once qualified for the World Cup (1986). Even in terms of Canada’s two most popular sports, hockey and football, the results have been lacklustre. In the three Winter Olympics since NHL players have been able to compete, the country has only won one medal (gold in 2002), and has never produced a football player who was gifted enough to become an all-pro at the highest level, the NFL. On a larger scale, Canada has been stripped of a number of beloved NHL franchises and, with the impending arrival of the NFL, could lose its only authentically Canadian sport, Canadian football.
The reason we play sports seems clear, as an expression of jingoism. Consequently, the stronger a country’s jingoism, the more competitive it are at sports. This parallel helps elucidate Canada’s pitiful athletic past, for Canada is a culture of apathy, in terms of both sports and jingoism.
Next Week: Part two, the present — the National Hockey League.
