Football

So I went to the game tonight. I actually go to a lot of the football games, i just never watch them. I take tickets at the gate with my church (they get money or something) and then I hang out with the Newmanites and leave. I basically hate football. I completely understand the attraction for everyone, and I have absolute respect for it as a form of entertainment, but it's not my cup of tea. I just don't CARE who gets the ball to the endzone. But I was there tonight with Jessica (after taking tickets, of course) and I was looking around thinking that society has really come NOWHERE at all. We like to think we're so advanced now. We are masters of the world, the highest forms of life, but I think that's completely untrue. Take first the arena. When did we first see that particular architectural structure? Greece. About a million years ago. It was developed so that EVERYONE could come and watch lions attack each other. Or gladiators fight to the death. Or some other equally perverse form of entertainment. How different is that from football? It's all violence. It's entertainment by watching Darwin's natural selection right in front of you. People always want a clear winner and a BIG FAT LOSER. The drama of that gap of separation is extraordinary. One dead, one alive. One victorious, one defeated. Ok, now lets move on to "crowd mentality." There is that psychological theory about how different an individual's behavior is in a crowd - they will simply follow the flock no matter what the flock happens to do. There is no independant thought. We are taugh this (well, not the theory actually, but it relates) in lifeguarding class. We are taught that in an emergency situation, we must point to a SPECIFIC person in the crowd and say "YOU! Call 911." Basically, if we don't single out a person and just address the crowd saying, "somebody call 911" then no one actually will. Ok, back to the topic. So the crowd cheers and claps and stomps on cue, all together, waving pom pons and wearing matching colors. I was gazing across the arena at all these waving pom pons and marvelling how like a school of fish they looked. Back and forth, same colors, same jerky movement, little distinction between one and the next, all moving but yet not. And then there is the glorious marching band. They spend hours rehearsing so they can move and play in sync, and I was just thinking how they looked exactly like ants. Ants always move in tandem, no matter what direction they are travelling. Then there are the football players - I won't elaborate, you all know they look like apes out there. And I'm not insulting them, please don't get that impression. They work hard and are better athletes than I ever will be. But no one can deny the similarity between their patterns of movement and that of apes.
Maybe I could enjoy football if it didn't give me this animalistic impression of humanity. I guess that's why I prefer art - it really highlights the SOUL, the chief distinction between us and animals. I DO like a lot of sports, and I am not a priss about them. i play, I watch, i understand. I just get a little sad sometimes is all....