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I think throwing and catching a ball is a good physical activity that helps develop coordination
But I think team sports involving balls lead to poor moral character and poor moral character leads to liking team sports involving balls
These ball team sports set up a us vs them mentality not on the basis of disagreements over valuable things like philosophocial outlloks on life but on the basis of random assignment into teams
Ball team sports are correlated with so called NPC behavior
@shortstories it's modern day bread and circus
@Soy_Magnus @shortstories I might as well throw it all in this reply, but most of this is directly referring to OP.
>team sports involving balls lead to poor moral character
I disagree somewhat: I believe *watching* team sports (of basically any kind, including so-called "e-sports") leads to poor moral character.
This distinction will continue to be important.
>set up a us vs them mentality [...] on the basis of random assignment into teams
This is actually a good thing, given one condition: That that assignment doesn't last. With children the results are questionable because children are cliquey little shits, but around the latter end of puberty it becomes extremely effective to make today's enemy tomorrow's friend and vice versa: It teaches you to not hate trivial "enemies", to not take the game seriously; to focus more on the benefits of the training than on the score.
Again, watching sports rarely involves such rearrangement of the "fans", they entrench themselves and build grudges, leading to exactly that problem.
Bread and circuses are indeed effective against the audience.
Counter-point: Unorganised games with friends. Cricket makes a good example because it's reasonably easy to adapt to a teamless mode: Whoever gets the batter out becomes the new batter, bowler just rotates whenever. Nobody keeps score beyond "he did really well".
This still holds with, say, soccer, you can divide in half and go for it for an hour or so and then go back inside.
>team sports involving balls lead to poor moral character
I disagree somewhat: I believe *watching* team sports (of basically any kind, including so-called "e-sports") leads to poor moral character.
This distinction will continue to be important.
>set up a us vs them mentality [...] on the basis of random assignment into teams
This is actually a good thing, given one condition: That that assignment doesn't last. With children the results are questionable because children are cliquey little shits, but around the latter end of puberty it becomes extremely effective to make today's enemy tomorrow's friend and vice versa: It teaches you to not hate trivial "enemies", to not take the game seriously; to focus more on the benefits of the training than on the score.
Again, watching sports rarely involves such rearrangement of the "fans", they entrench themselves and build grudges, leading to exactly that problem.
Bread and circuses are indeed effective against the audience.
Counter-point: Unorganised games with friends. Cricket makes a good example because it's reasonably easy to adapt to a teamless mode: Whoever gets the batter out becomes the new batter, bowler just rotates whenever. Nobody keeps score beyond "he did really well".
This still holds with, say, soccer, you can divide in half and go for it for an hour or so and then go back inside.
@Zergling_man @shortstories I used to play buttered rock ball with my stripper friend. We *lathered a small boulder with margarine and threw it at each other's it's the only sport known to be endorsed by my 2 insane furry monsters
Alternative take: if the composition of teams can change between games, it teaches kids (and adults) how to work with another person on something without having to agree on everything. And how to coordinate efforts under a consistent set of rules.
Watching ball games on screens is NPC behaviour. Actually playing them IRL is what you make of it...
Watching ball games on screens is NPC behaviour. Actually playing them IRL is what you make of it...
@shortstories I think it all boils down to money and popularity.
At the core, I consider ball team sports to be....relatively harmless. But like anything, once enough money goes into it the culture changes from people just enjoying a game and forgetting about life for awhile into what it is today.
This happened with capeshit. It used to be a good escape vehicle and once the money and popularity if it reaches its peak it was only a matter of time until it became a joke.
At the core, I consider ball team sports to be....relatively harmless. But like anything, once enough money goes into it the culture changes from people just enjoying a game and forgetting about life for awhile into what it is today.
This happened with capeshit. It used to be a good escape vehicle and once the money and popularity if it reaches its peak it was only a matter of time until it became a joke.
