Friday Night Lights
I saw Friday Night Lights for the first time last weekend. It is a powerful movie that captures the passion a town in Texas has for their high school football team. The pressure on the coach and students to win a state championship is extraordinary and the movie does a great job portraying the inconsequence of the result. I would definitely recommend it.
Passion is an interesting facet of the human personality. I often wonder how the political landscape would change if we could get people as impassioned about elections and government as they are about sports. Imagine a protest of a million Red Sox fans, angry about social security change or job losses, headed for the White House. It would be straight to Air Force 1 for the President.
I often try to question my sport loving friends about their apathy towards politics. I suggest that sport will do little to affect their lives whereas the leaders in government will have a profound affect. This is usually countered with some comment about politics being boring and me being a liberal fanatic. I'm trying to understand their perspective but I really don't get it.
Passion is an interesting facet of the human personality. I often wonder how the political landscape would change if we could get people as impassioned about elections and government as they are about sports. Imagine a protest of a million Red Sox fans, angry about social security change or job losses, headed for the White House. It would be straight to Air Force 1 for the President.
I often try to question my sport loving friends about their apathy towards politics. I suggest that sport will do little to affect their lives whereas the leaders in government will have a profound affect. This is usually countered with some comment about politics being boring and me being a liberal fanatic. I'm trying to understand their perspective but I really don't get it.
posted by mochi at 7:00 AM
3 Comments:
Mochi, passion is good, but when it is the ruling variable in one's involvement in politics it is more often a destructive power than a constructive one. No one was more passionate about their politics and national identity than the Germans and their Fuhrer.
I think that the problem is with this nation is that we are often guided by passion rather than reason. That is demonstrated often by protestors storming a street with a great majority of them not even knowing why they are there or what they are really protesting.
During the Iraq war, I went down to the local protest and conducted a survey. I had several qualifying questions that each surveyee had to answer. I asked first: 1. Who is the secretary of defense and state.(question to test their knowledge) 2. Did they protest in like fashion the 4 incursions and bombings in Iraq or the interference in Kosovo during the Clinton Administration(question to test their committment) 3. Where they aware of any of the details of U.N. Resolution 1440, (question to test their involvement) and 4. Approximately how many U.S. soldiers had been KIA to date. (question to test their currency)
First of all, NO ONE had protested Clinton's war actions--therefore I really questioned their commitment to their "Peace" ideal, rather than their dislike of Bush and his administration. Of the other three, 4% got 2 out of 4, 7% got 1 out of 4, and the rest just didn't have a clue.
I treated every one of these protestors with respect, and did not make fun of their ignorance. It DID illustrate to me, however, that there was loads of passion but little thought or rationale.
I understand what you are saying, Mochi, you and I are very passionate and caring about our politics; and we often agonize at others lack of involvement or commitment.
If we could be as passionate about reason and judgement as we are about politics, then maybe the Democrat or Republican Party would start to make more sense.
Keep up the good bloggin', Dude!
"The problem with ideologues is that they fail to recognize the danger of their own philosophy before it's too late, and then want to deny the reality of its fruition." - Jack Mercer
Look at it this way. Sometimes sports can bring people together who are on different sides of political issues. I think it is good for people to have something light to talk about. As for the movie, the one part that I did not like was how they put that kid back out there with a torn ACL. If they would have got him surgery right away, he could have still had a career.
Good point, I often take things too seriously. Sport is a great way to relax but I often find it can be the only thing some people are prepared to discuss.
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