Life is a Sport

Sports or competitions are a large part of American culture. People bond by participating in sports related activities and by supporting the same teams. The ideology behind sports is -or rather was- that sports “promote arete or human excellence”  (Reid). Sports were about the skills, experience, and character that were developed while participating in the sport, but in today’s society winning has become more important than the battle or sport itself. In fact, competition is extends beyond the simple sports like the NFL or the NBA. Competition or sport is so ingrained into today’s society that children as young as five are pitted against each other in school. Who’s the smartest, the quickest? Even in school, educators encourage students to see each other as opponents and to out compete one another, and the same is true for getting jobs. It is important to acknowledge the type of stigma and pressure that is also placed upon just everyday people for everyday that is lived is like another day of competition or sport. As Reid pointed out, winning as become more important than the effort that one puts forth to get to where they are or have accomplished. It is this constant competitive nature in addition to the “winning is everything” mindset that contribute to the aggression or moral-less acts that one may witness in American society.

In an individualistic culture such as America, the emphasis is solely in the individual. People are told that they can make it to the top of the economic if they pull themselves up by their boot scraps. In a way, living in a capitalist society in of itself is a sport, constant competition not just in a physical sense. As Schwartz points out that even sports require “intellectual complexity or  intellectual sport”. Afterall, would Michael Jordan be able to play basketball if he couldn’t comprehend the whatever the coach was saying or if he was brain dead? The idea that competition enhances “self-knowledge, discipline,courage, and justice” (Reid) also manifests in intellectual competitions. Chess, for example, requires much more strategy and more variables to account for (Schwartz) it is a sport where one must be self-knowledgeable as well as “knowledgeable of the opposition”. One must have the discipline to wait for the right time to make move and to have control of his or emotions such as eagerness during the game to prevent from jumping the gun.  Moreover, we sit in the classrooms, attend classes, and complete assignments in hopes of being able to better “compete” in society, to stand out from those who may not have a degree. The growing number of competitors motivate some to do all that they’re mentally capable of doing in older to succeed.

However, competition is not always as evenly split as one would hope. Usually people are going against others on uneven playing fields. For instance, private school education versus inner city education in Memphis are not equivalent. Those who are given a private education are given a significant advantage over those who attend regular public school. This is where you may see those who could not defeat the competition congratulate those who were able to overcome that “challenge” and attend college. Let’s explore what happens to those who “lose”. In The Longest Yard, when the coach saw that the guards were losing against the convicts, he threaten Paul with more time and a murder charge. The aggression was very clearly demonstrated in his language and face. Similarly, when people are not able to acquire the skills and experience they need to be able to compete in the job market, they become aggressive and frustrated and in some cases criminal. People who are not fit for competition start to do whatever is takes to be the “winner” such as athletes who take steroids or those who cheat during competitions. Some people are so enthralled with coming out on top that they forget the “virtues” or morals (Reid) that a winner is supposed to uphold and instead perform loser actions such as lying on their resume or during an interview in order to get a job. Some people start to harbor anger and aggression after losing so many times: not being able to get the job they applied for, not passing the tests in school, never being recognized for the effort they put forth only for losing.