Re: At what rate are YOU progressing?

[Dominus]

Says turnstep:

What does one really gain from watching two hours of basketball? Again, this is a personal choice, but as you say, it's a way of "shutting off your brain."

I didn't say that, and you have completely missed my point. We are not in agreement.

Watching sports can be done passively or actively. It can be as engaging and as fulfilling as any other activity, or as pointless as any other activity, depending on how it is done.

I always find it interesting that people like to make these sorts of arguments against sports. The only explanation I have ever been able to find is that it is intellectual snobbery. I have never heard anyone say

Performing opera, no, but listening to them? What does one really gain from listening the opera for two hours?

or

Their is a difference between enjoying acting yourself, and the mass worship of actors that occurs and is driven by money.

Similarly, Randal can make disparaging comments about "watching other people make millions of dollars while competing at kids games" but you never hear anyone say the same thing about Eddie Murphy or Jon Bon Jovi, even though they are engaged in pursuits that are just as frivolous and childish as playing basketball. At least, I never have heard such a thing.

Eddie Murphy and Jon Bon Jovi make a lot of money. Why? Because they entertain a lot of people, so much that millions of those people are willing to spend their hard-earned money to see them do what they do. Professional athletes are the same way. They are entertainers. The fact that you consider this form of entertainment to be lowbrow just reflects badly on you.

Watching a sports event has many of the same rewards as any other spectator activity: Emotional involvement, the pleasure of seeing something difficult done well, the sense of participating in a public spectacle. It has some others besides: The surprise of the unforseen, and the drama of struggle and accomplishment. You may be unable to appreciate this value, but that doesn't mean it is not there.

Anyway, this is off-topic, so I will not be posting to this thread any more.

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Mark Dominus
Perl Paraphernalia