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Lesson 6 |
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The sporting spirit |
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How does the writer describe sport at the international level? |
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I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, |
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and that if only the common peoples of the world |
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could meet one another at football or cricket, |
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they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. |
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Even if one didn't know from concrete examples |
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(the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) |
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that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, |
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one could deduce it from general principles. |
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Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. |
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You play to win, |
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and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. |
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On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, |
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it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: |
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but as soon as a the question of prestige arises, |
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as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, |
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the most savage combative instincts are aroused. |
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Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. |
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At the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare. |
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But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: |
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and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe |
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-- at any rate for short periods -- that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue. |