Death to Professional Sports

[kimberlysteele]

Despite its massive egregore and towering astral pyramids, at least half the world's population takes no interest in professional sports.  Much like other forms of "professional" entertainment, professional sports seem to have hit their peak.  Also much like other "professional" modes of entertainment, becoming a pro sportsball player is not encumbered by meritocracy.  Even before the days when biological males in boxing rings were turning South Park episodes into grim reality, there was enough steroid use and nepotism to tip the entire construct towards grotesque unfairness.  

Gen X prides itself on a childhood spent playing outside yet it easily forgets the era's obsession with organized sports.  Though my generation and the ones after it were told we could be boss babes or astronauts, the real fixation was with turning us all into professional, competitive athletes.  One's popularity in public school in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s was largely dependent upon athletic status.  Every homecoming king was nearly required to be the captain of at least one high school sports team.  When I was in high school, there was a cringeworthy, edgelord rich kid who insisted he should be homecoming king instead of the usual suspects.  In the end, he lacked the necessary votes and time on the field.  Deep involvement in school sports has always helped filter out the riff raff: school sports have always cost a small fortune.  Poor kids cannot afford to participate.  In the novel and later movie, Carrie, the popular girl who bullies the titular character is a female jock who manipulates her boyfriend into dumping pig's blood on poor, unathletic Carrie.  It is fitting that the brutal opening scene of Carrie takes place in a high school gym locker room.  

I don't know how it is now in this time of molly-coddling and paranoia, but back in the day no one was safe from the obsession with sports.  In junior high, everyone did the Superbowl Shuffle.  We were given a "choice" to sit it out and look like nerdy freaks; it wasn't a real choice.  I wish the idiots who made public school a living hell for non-jocks could let non-sports fans either appreciate sports from the side lines or opt out entirely.  There was no such animal in my young days.  Nowadays, I would still be happy to see everyone who forced me to play sports pilloried for a minimum of 24 hours.  I did not mind swimming or running many miles.  What made me angry was getting hit in the face over three times in floor hockey.  I have always been athletic; I simply have no urge to compete.  

It's a good thing they played better than they danced...
 

I admire what sporty types do but I cannot imagine paying to see them, let alone traveling and then paying to see them.  For the athletes themselves, the insane drive to be THE BEST seems hollow in this post-Piscean age where to truly shine is to do your own, unique thing.  Professional sports are by their nature a religion of conformity.  Games have rules.  Players wear uniforms so they all look the same.  They join TEAMS.  Every person who has attained a position in professional sports team has gotten there by being a rule-follower and a conformist.  Sports are boring because they offer few surprises.  Gymnastics and iceskating are somewhat compelling because of their creative aesthetics but the rest of it is ugly and base. 

Sports were and are little mock-ups of wars.  Like wars, they belong to Ares and maleness.  In the ancient Greek Olympics, it goes without saying women were not allowed to participate in the games.  Many people do not realize that married women were banned from watching. Despite the Olympics being a very big deal back then, married women were not allowed to watch the men's games upon penalty of death.

Taylor Swift is the musical equivalent of a modern professional sports star.  She plays to half the world -- her fans likely number in the billions -- and for now her face and body match a scary ideal mere mortals cannot achieve even with copious surgery.  Despite her grandeur, I think she's boring.  Her music is overcooked-lasagna-noodle bland.  It sounds like it was written by a focus group of middle-aged Karens.  Anyone who wants me to sit through one of her live concerts would have to pay me at least ten thousand dollars, not the other way around.  

As we shift harder towards a world where legions of social media users disenfranchise the Taylor Swifts and Kylie Kardashians of the world by tuning them out, I think we will see professional sports finally begin to loosen its death grip on the collective imagination.  Will women's sports be completely obliterated as the ranks fill with biologically superior athletes of XY chromosomal makeup?  Will the opening ceremonies of Olympics 2028 kowtow to the new pressures of the religiously respectful Right?  I don't care and you cannot make me care. The only wish I have related to sports is the wish my tax dollars will never again fund a sports stadium build out; I am certainly not holding my breath for that practice to end anytime soon.  

If you like sports, more power to you. As an outsider looking in, I would implore you to save your hard-earned money for the support of your own local teams. If you have a child in sports, realize that it is a racket and please do not pressure the talented kid to “go pro” as it is an even bigger racket. Maybe I am just naive over here but I thought sports was supposed to be about sportsmanship and love of the game. I don’t see much of those in professional sports and I doubt I am the only one.   

Comments

Sports

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that pro sports have become grotesquely steroidal, metaphorically and literally - way too much hoopla, fanfare, glamour, and moolah. Same thing with Hollywood and all its inane celebrities. But I’ve always liked the idea of pro-sports. After all, for a relatively few people, sport is what they can do best in life, so let them do what they’re good at for the few years they have to excel at it.

I think you’re a lil off-base with the slams on conformity, uniforms, teams, etc. Yeah, it’s a post-Piscean age, but they’ll still be sports teams, albeit they’ll be limited to localities … and they’ll definitely be Aquarian-age armies. Oh, and you’re wrong about sports not being able to produce genuine surprises. They can and they do.

Back in the day, (I’m an old creep, btw) a pro athlete might have achieved a certain amount of renown, maybe the type of guy who never had to pay for his own drinks in a bar, but during the off-season, would have to go to work at, say, dad’s aluminum siding business to make ends meet. That made sense. Athletes were journey men entertainers, no more, no less. Now they’re celebrity-gods, lapping up the fame and jingle.

The Super Bowl, the Olympics disgust me for obvious reasons. But holy beans, did I love to participate in sports when I was a kid, yes, even as they often terrified me. I learned to take the terror head-on, I learned that a bloody nose wouldn’t kill me or otherwise cause me to fall apart. Yeah, I learned to take a dodge ball in the face without crying. I think I’m a better person for it.

Fun read, thx.

Best,
Will M

Re: Sports

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks for this. I think it shows that I have not gone through a male incarnation in a long while. My divinations tell me I will be a gay man in my next incarnation, whenever that happens to be, so I wonder if he will be a sporty guy or not. As a girl's girl this time around, I tended to date the dudes who were OK with taking a dodgeball (or roundhouse kick, or pelted rock) in the face. In fact, I married one!

Re: Sports

[(Anonymous)]

Well, one thing I’ve noticed about athletes male and female is that they invariably have heavy Aries/Mars aspects in their natal charts. I think we’re always gonna have a warrior class, which is natural - and they’re gonna find a way to go about war-ing in some way.

I’m not of this adventurous ilk myself, btw. I’ve got mars conjunct sun, but they’re in my 12th, so I’m a born nerd. However, I think this does give me an appreciation and admiration at least for our warrior class.

Yeah, I’m from Wilmette on the north shore. And glad to be so, glad that I grew up in flatland and not on the coasts where you can get zapped at an early age. I’m now living in the country in upstate NY, and let me tell you, I have something of an outsider’s perspective of the Midwest now, and what a vibrant, bursting, creative place it is - you’re a prime example of such, Kimberly.

Yes, it was the bad vibes, crime, concern over social collapse that drove me away from Chicago itself, but the Midwest is an undying archetype.

Sports, again

[(Anonymous)]

Kimberly, let me add:

I’m from the Chicago area myself, and while I could give a rat’s hinder about the fortunes of the Chicago Cubs, I was overjoyed for their fans when they finally won a World Series in ‘16. I mean particularly their elderly working class fans who, not being able to proactively go out of the house as they once did, learned to follow and enjoy the games on WGN.

Would they be better off reading and studying Krishnamurti or the Bible’s esoteric content? Of course they would. But that’s not the stage they’re at. For them, and for now, it’s simple amusements and pleasures, and I think that’s all right.

best,
Will

Re: Sports, again

[kimberlysteele]

Ah, the spirit of Chicagoland! It runs deep. I knew there was something about you... LOL. Yes, it was delightful when the Cubs fans had their win. I was certainly rooting for them even though my Dad always loved the Sox.

[methylethyl]

We used to have church and workplace softball teams-- not back in the dark ages, but just when I was a kid.

I think the reason we don't have them anymore is because everybody's too fat and air-conditioning dependent :(

[(Anonymous)]

My fad served in WWII and Korea, hunted, fished, fixed everything, worked in factories and finished out his working life in Defense Reutilization and Marketing Organization DRMO-/DOD’s junkyard . Just the kind of guy people expect will enjoy all kinds of sportsball. Totally uninterested. So’s my brother, the retired professional truck driver.

I like basketball 🏀 but don’t know if I qualify ad a fan. Don’t know who the Bulls have on the team, never bet on a game. I just like watching basketball on TV.

—Princess Cutekitten

[mr_nobody1967]

I have long thought of obsession with this or that professional sports-team to be a sure-fire badge of banality.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kimberly,
I very much appreciate your writings in general and your thoughts about sports in particular. I want to offer a slightly different view. Now in my 50s, I have been watching professional sports as a source of regulation since I was around 8 or so. While I utterly detest the industry that sports has become and the objectification of children at the hands of narcissist parents trying to live through their kids, the beauty and artistry of sports remains a joy for me.

I realize in thinking about this that when I participate in sports, I do it as a way to regulate my etheric field and move big energy that otherwise would have unhealthy outlets. I take great pleasure in moving my body in a coordinated way that produces specific results necessary for the game I am engaging in. In witnessing others performing similarly, I resonate with that expression which I find beneficial when I am not participating directly myself.

Your point about rules as a means of conformity is an interesting one. I rest in the structure that the rules of the game create and there is a fine line between healthy structure and soul killing conformity that our culture is deeply wrestling with right now in my opinion. Too much structure leads to unhealthy rebellion with no ground or intention or rigid conformity where right for one person or culture is extended inappropriately to right for all. Not enough structure and you get fragmentation and lack of basic trust and respect. Ah how to rest in the middle when change is the only constant. I see many surprises every time I watch the sports I love where an athlete confronts a challenge in an unexpected way that still fits within the structure of the rules of the game.

I completely agree with you about sports stadiums. Why should the average taxpayer create more profit for another billionaire. There has been push back in many locations over the last 20 years.

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts about all of this.

[(Anonymous)]

I have more than the socially acceptable number of children, and one reason my family and I are able to enjoy our evenings and weekends is that our children are not all enrolled in sports. I am not opposed to it someday, if they show interest, but there is a weird obsession with it among the PMC. "Your weekends must be full because of all the extracurriculars," someone said to me recently, and I just smiled a bit.

I have occasionally thought about getting the whole family into martial arts or archery or something we can all do together at the same time, but of course that gets expensive. Better than the constant hustle from one soccer game to the next.

Christopher Kinyon

[kimberlysteele]

Yes, it's like a full time job! Plus they have to get driven everywhere. I'm sure everyone enjoys it and there is a sense of belonging, but you've got to be very well into the upper middle class economically to afford it.

If any kind of sport is worth the money for the family, I tend to think it would be learning to carry, store, and shoot a gun. Now that is a skill that can be passed down the line for generations and will always come in handy.