1. Sports are harmful to society in two ways, reflecting the conflict between the interests of the relatively powerful and those of the powerless (the ruling class vs. the masses, team owners vs. sports audiences). 2. First, by serving as an integrating force, sports effectively act as an opiate, numbing the masses’ sense of dissatisfaction with capitalist society. Involvement in sports as spectators tends to distract low-paid or unemployed workers from their tedious and dehumanizing jobs or frustrating joblessness. At the same time, sports tend to promote what Marx called “false consciousness,†attitudes that support the established society rather than question it. The mostly working-class “soccer hooligans†in Great Britain are a good example. After their team loses in international soccer games, they often show “an exaggerated, embarrassing patriotism, a violent nationalism†by attacking foreigners. To divert their citizens’ attention from their miserable lives, governments of many poor countries also seize any opportunity that arises to whip up the masses into a frenzy of patriotic support for their teams. Such a nationalist frenzy can be carried to extremes, as it was in 1969 when Honduras and El Salvador went to war against each other after a World Cup soccer match. 3. Second, sports reinforce social, gender, and racial inequalities in society. With regard to social inequality, the overemphasis on competition and winning has caused the loss of something that all participants can enjoy equally—namely, the original elements of play and fun in sporting activities. This has turned many people into “couch potatoes†who spend more time watching than playing sports. Sports, then, have become big business, with powerful owners of professional teams exploiting the public and government. Aside from making enormous sums of money from the fans, team owners receive many tax breaks while enjoying the enviable position of being the only self-regulated (in effect, unregulated) monopoly in the nation. Team owners have further professionalized and bureaucratized sports. This in turn has generated an elitist system, in which a very tiny number of owners and players become tycoons and superstars and the huge numbers of potential players are transformed into mere spectators. What is the following? Sports are harmful to society. a)the main idea of paragraph 3 b)the main idea of paragraph 2 c)the topic of the passage d)the central point of the passage
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1 :
Yes... I did excel in High School reading class. You can too, just stop depending on others to do you work.
2 :
The English hooligan problem has never been whipped up by the British state in a flurry of nationalist feeling, for the british state, represents just that - Britain. while english football fans only 'represent' england. The british government has always been deeply embarrassed by this major cultural export of ours. Also its worth pointing out that many hooligans were/are of a left wing persuasion ie:some liverpool fc groups in the 80's. the truth is that a vast majority of football hooligans could not care for the details of political thought, their prejudices are the same as the rest of the society they come from. Extreme political groups have always tried too recruit from football gangs with some but over-all very little success, ultimately english football hooligans couldn't give a fuck about what any politician in a gray suit says or thinks
