Staying course on the theme of the Olympics, I'd like to put some thoughts I've had out on the table to see if anyone can enlighten me....
My main thought consists of "what really is our fascination with this??". Yes, these atheletes have ENORMOUS talent. And they have all demonstrated the greatest heights of human discipline. But they have also demonstrated the greatest heights of another less revered human quality - narcissism.
Why does one need to the best in the world? How much stroking of one's ego could one possibly desire, if one needs to prove that they are better than the rest of the 6 billion people wandering this planet?
Let's really think about this for a second....aside from inspiring young people to play sports (and I highly doubt that everyone would stop playing sports if the Olympics ceased to exist), what else do the heights of their careers actually accomplish for anyone other than themselves??
Can you imagine spending 95% of your time working on perfecting one skill, that is of no use to anyone in this world except yourself and your teammates? And somehow then it is not enough to be in the top 1% of your sport, you need to spend even more time making sure that you can beat the others in the top 1% by 0.01 of a second - just to prove that you are the best!
Of course it is fascinating to see what the limits of the human body are - and like everyone else, I have a huge amount of respect for people who are able to reach those limits. But deciding whether you are a fraction of a second (or 5 seconds for that matter) faster than the next guy goes WAY beyond determining the limits of the human body.
I truly do not understand this need to be "best", this need to quantify things to the minutiae of 1/100th of a second, this desire to put on blinders and focus only on the one thing that will make you swell with the pride of superiority. And I really don't understand why we as a society (myself included) place such value on it. I don't get why this display of narcissism is considered a positive thing, rather than a negative thing.
Despite the fact that I myself have found myself on the edge of my seat watching these events, I truly don't have answers to the above questions...
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3 comments:
I don't think I am going out on a limb here in saying that I think you may be going a little over board by saying Olympic athletes demonstrate the greatest heights of narcissism.
Do you really think all these athletes are competing in these events for selfish reasons? For the grandiose view of their own talents?
I think you are doing them all a disservice by saying so. Many of them compete for a variety of reasons and probably one of the most common is their love for their sport.
Many of them compete for reasons besides self interest. Eric Little, known and the flying Scotsman and the main character of the movie chariots of fire, ran with the following quote from the bible gripped in his hand:
1 Samuel 2:30, "Those who honor me I will honor."
Eric ran for the glory of God and not for any other reason. He ran because God gave him the gift of being fast. To Glorify God he refused to run the 100m because the event was being held on a Sunday. Can you imagine that? Respecting the Sabbath instead of competing in a race, admirable in my opinion and certainly not full of conceit or boastfulness. Well.... i guess he is indirectly boasting in the Cross.
A more current Olympic athlete (again from Britain) was Eddie the Eagle. Do you think he was displaying narcissism when he was competing? I think not.
I will point out something in your post. You make a claim that the skills these athletes develop are of no use to anyone. Firstly - and I guess i am being a little snarky when I say this - you are asserting an absolute truth that these skills are of no use to anyone or is it a relative one? If it is relative, perhaps these skills the athletes have are just not useful to you? If so, it hardly implies that they are being narcissistic. If it is an absolute truth, then there is a contradiction in a world view which you state in a earlier post.
I can personally think of a few events in which it is a useful skill to have developed to great perfection. The shooting events for example. We need our police and military to have accurate shooters. We may even want them to be able to run fast as well. In fact, the faster the better in my opinion.
Did you know that many of the events in the Olympics originated from useful everyday skills? I can think of many: weight lifting, running, javelin, swimming, sailing, marathon, etc. Certainly one could argue that the historic reminder of these events in the Olympics is relevant to us now.
David - thanks for your comment ...a couple counter-comments however:
1) you might notice that this posting (and in fact this blog) is "my opinion" - not something I'm claiming to be the Truth (absolute or relative). Relativity of truth does not mean having a lack of opinion - it means understanding that my world view is my own - and no more or less legitimate than another's world view.
2) you might notice that I actually stated that I "myself included" place value on such human achievements. The point of the posting was not to undercut the legitimacy of their achievements, but rather to ponder why we as a society hold these qualities of "being best" in such high esteem (as opposed to the qualities of say a Monk who seeks out humility and mindfulness which viewed with less esteem in our Western society)
3) I appreciate your point about perfection of skills being useful...this is a very good point, and it definitely assists in my understanding of this issue. However, there is a big difference between achieving perfection (which all of these athletes have achieved) and being the "most perfect" (which only a few will achieve). I see these as two VERY different philosophies.
In my profession, I seek to be as perfect a physician as I can, so that I can do best by my patients. However, I do not seek to compete with other physicians to prove I am better than them. We do not have "diagnostic races" to see who can figure it out the quickest. It would accomplish nothing for anyone to do that. It would gobble up huge amounts of our time and energy to get ready for such competitions, and in the end noone would benefit from it except for our own egos. We are all competant, and we are all passionate about being very good at what we do - none of us needs to be the absolute "best".
In the same way, athletic skill taken to high levels can be very valuable to society (as you demonstrated in your comment). However, taking it to this level - where one needs specialized swimsuits, various surgeries to optimize one's body under the vigours of training, and clocks that go to the 1/100th of a second - in my opinion, is beyond anything that is necessary or useful.
I posted a follow up comment earlier but perhaps it didn't get through... if it was taken down, sorry to have posted again.
As for your point (1)
I am reminded of a story about a reporter who went around asking the public the question... "Do words have meaning or do we make them up to fit our reality?". Can you imagine asking such a question with words?
An Opinion is a view held, judgement formed or a conclusion reached. Perhaps I am wrong about the definition (to be sure i looked it up in the OED) of an opinion but if I (and the OED) am right then an opinion is a truth which one (or many) holds to. So if you are stating an opinion it means you are standing by a belief you hold to be true.
As for the relativity of truth, do you believe absolutely that truth is relative? In order to believe that truth is relative, one has to believe in an absolute truth. It is a self defeating position to hold to.
So to wrap my head around this, you are stating an opinion (a belief/truth) but also saying that its truth is valid only to you? Could it also be true outside of your own frame of reference? If so, what kind of truth does this make it?
As for points (2) and (3)...
It is our own failings which cause us to esteem greatness. We as humans are far from perfect. We stand in a unique position of knowing what mankind is like because we are man ourselves. We know we fail in so many ways and recognize that others are the same. This is why we recognize greatness and place value on it. It is something we aspire to but fail in so many ways.
What I like about the Olympics (and other sporting events) is that it doesn't only recognize the best (never mind those who achieve perfection and those who are more perfect...????), it also recognizes second and third. It recognizes THOSE who are great. Not just the person who is 1/100th faster or stronger than the next.
As for the fast swim suits. There are many reasons to develop these that are not just to be 1/100th faster than the rest. The science and technology is useful in developing other types of clothing for other purposes. Also, speaking as a former lifeguard, any suit which would help me save someone faster is aces! (although those swim suits they were wearing would not be great for tanning).
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