What I feel a need for is waking up folks in this country. We are headed for collapse while people are more interested in being entertained than in getting involved. Such pervasive entertainment is something so very new in human history. Professional sports has become a big soap opera. It’s not just about watching a couple games one day a week. But on discussing the last game and speculating on the upcoming game. Here’s what I think is gonna happen. Here’s what they should do. So-and-so did this or said that. And now NFL is multiple days a week. Plus MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, etc. The owners and players are laughing all the way to the bank while your way of life is headed for extinction/ Bread and circuses.
Guess I hit a nerve with you.
Pervasive entertainment isn’t at all new in history, human being love to be entertained and have always made sure they had tons of entertainment available. We’ve had plays, and books, and minstrels, and story tellers, and jesters, and a long tradition of gathering together during or after meal time to be entertained (or entertaining). What’s different is how many people can watch the same thing at the same time, and therefore get to discuss it later. It used to be if your co-worker wasn’t at the same pub as you he couldn’t have seen the minstrel so you couldn’t really discuss much beyond “you should go to that pub tonight, he’s great”, now just because the two of you didn’t spend the evening together doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy the same entertainment.
The human mind needs its relaxation time, it requires entertainment to maintain balance. It’s such a desperate need that the brain will make up its own in dreams. It’s no coincidence that when you get engrossed in a book, movie or TV show your brain enters the same alpha wave state as during a dream.
And we can have our entertainments and still deal with the world. It’s not either or, we’ve got 24 hours in a day to mess with. If you really want to get people more involved in the problems of the world don’t attack the entertainment our brain requires to function, attack the government and its tax rate that forces us to spend so much time earning money. We spend 9 hours a day at work (if we’re lucky), another hour or so getting there and back, plus another couple hours an basic biological needs other than sleep, 8 hours on sleep, and you begrudge people taking 3 hours to relax. Make our work day shorter by letting us keep our money, then you’ll see activism. By the time we’re done paying the government we’re exhausted.
You didn’t hit any nerves, you’re just showing yourself to be a bloviating ego booster. If you actually want to fix problems insulting people accomplishes nothing, it’s just you stroking your ego.
You hit on the head, the sports you mention and the Premier League of Soccer in England are like this. English long-time sports writer calls that league in England “The greed is good league”.
NFL is messing up, people use to turn it on on Thanksgiving to watch a game traditionally. Not sure if people will continue to have this kind of enthusiasm.