I just can't understand why people are so into watching sports. I believe the history books of the future will look at humans enjoyment of sports

@Freeindeed How is community meaningless when humans have always been a social species? Look at how many loners go on to become school shooters, how many lonely people become depressed and get into self-destructive habits, how loneliness contributes to poorer mental and physical health as people age. Community doesn't need a cause, it IS the cause. Society would not function without people feeling like their contributions matter

Of course people can form community for a variety of reasons. It's in our nature to seek belonging, even if that's for ignorant or self-aggrandizing reasons. I'm not saying every community is important, just that it is important to have a community.

I mean, you could also argue that music and art and literature are useless since they don't serve any grander purpose.

Self-improvement communities are fulfilling in their own ways, but I'm specifically talking about large, organized, real-time events. There's not many. Concerts are usually cost-prohibitive. Parades happen only a few times a year. Theatres expect you to be quiet in the dark. Sports are one of those things where you can attend in a stadium, you can tailgate in the parking lot, you can watch at home, in someone else's home, in bars and restaurants. It brings people together from different walks of life and even different physical locations. Not many things can compare to that

@TinyViolins I concur that community is important and that it is wired in us to need it because we are a social species, but I still do not agree with your conclusion here.

But music, art and literature are all fulfilling in some form of intellectual, moral, aesthetic and spiritual need. All three cannot in any way be compared with sports, as they all at least took deep thought, introspection, creativity and intelligence to compose. They are mediums which contain ideas that change the world. Sports has no such function.

Okay, well even if I grant you that community doesn't need a cause and it is the cause, that still doesn't justify its existence, because as I mentioned, there a plenty of bad causes which do more damage to society or just wastes time, which still ultimately damages society. All groups are not legitimate just because they have a sense of community.

Our argument is essentially about whether or not community on its own is good. I just don't see how you can take the affirmative based on all of the abject and dysfunctional groups out there. When I say meaningless, I pretty much meant without value. Not every group which has a sense of community has value.

There are deep thinkers and geniuses who have done more good for the world in solitude than most groups have.

@Freeindeed Sports require a lot of hard-work and perseverance. Those aren't just people off the street competing in those contests. They train their bodies, they work on certain skills, they study their opponents, and practice to perfect their crafts.

It's not just people who are born with freakish athleticism that get flung into the arena. Those types don't last long. You have to work to earn your spot, or else someone else is going to out-work you for it, and that is a very useful attitude to have.

When it comes to team sports, it teaches cooperation, it teaches responsibility, and it teaches work ethic. Those are intrinsic values that translate over into a lot of other fields very well.

When children are able to see their favorite players succeed, it motivates some of them to want to succeed as well. Sports absolutely has value in society. It may not be for everybody, but that doesn't make it pointless.

@DeWayfarer [quoteProfessional sports have degraded society.][/quote]

NFL and NBA have destroyed the sports as well, imho. Turned them into concert-like events, with the strobe lights, smoke bombs, background music, video game uniforms, trash talking. And now Manfred is trying to do the same with baseball.

@dancingtongue it's on all professional leagues. It's so money driven that even the Arabs want on the action in golf. Auto Racing the same thing.

@DeWayfarer True. At least the Olympics at one time pretended to be about being for amateurs only, then allowed themselves to get wrapped up in the tribal competition between nations and opened the flood gates for full professionalism and overblown spectaculars. Baseball was sort of a hold out, particular in the minor leagues where it was more about a family outing experience and community fun. Then Manfred and his Future Vision took over, the owners got penis envy over the money flowing into the other sports, they began gussying up the sport with all the assorted video game crap, tried to kill off the minor leagues all together.

@Gibbon Or, as Santayana would say, a denial of history and having to relive it. Let us not forget that those Roman Games were designed to distract the masses from how the Empire was crumbling all around them from the corruption, nepotism, and repudiation of basic human values. The oligarchs sat in their private seating area among themselves to show off their elitism and determine which competitors lived or died. And in today's world we have the Superbowl in the Superdome with, , , , ,

@Freeindeed

You are pissing into the wind. Humans are tribal and competitive by nature. It would really be astounding if sports weren't popular

@kodiac And you have just brought up another problem with sports. Thank you for your contribution to the post. Compare the salaries of teachers to sports players. Enough said.

@Freeindeed I agree 100% if the teachers teach .