[00:01.46]Lesson 6
[00:03.05]The sporting spirit
[00:11.70]How does the writer describe sport at the international level?
[00:18.65]I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations,
[00:25.26]and that if only the common peoples of the world
[00:28.60]could meet one another at football or cricket,
[00:31.74]they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield.
[00:36.47]Even if one didn't know from concrete examples
[00:40.13](the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance)
[00:43.47]that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred,
[00:49.13]one could deduce it from general principles.
[00:53.86]Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive.
[00:58.33]You play to win,
[00:59.94]and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win.
[01:04.77]On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved,
[01:11.55]it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise:
[01:16.30]but as soon as a the question of prestige arises,
[01:20.00]as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose,
[01:26.00]the most savage combative instincts are aroused.
[01:30.76]Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this.
[01:36.01]At the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare.
[01:41.53]But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators:
[01:48.89]and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe
[01:59.51]-- at any rate for short periods -- that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.