Newsweek, Hitchens: Fool’s Gold.
“… what we are seeing is the very essence of sportsmanship. Whether it’s the exacerbation of national rivalries that you want — as in Africa this year — or the exhibition of the most depressing traits of the human personality (guns in locker rooms, golf clubs wielded in the home, dogs maimed and tortured at stars’ homes to make them fight, dope and steroids everywhere), you need only look to the wide world of sports for the most rank and vivid examples.”
If not vented through sports, these cultural poisons would fester, I think. I can turn off the television, walk onto my back courtyard, and I’m surrounded by lizards doing pushup displays of their blue chests, dashing off to defend their territory. They do this all day long, every day of summer. In sports, these aggressions are done with blunted, faux weaponry and largely impotent display. Sports are not completely harmless, but what is the alternative?
