RE: FW: England humour

From: Philip Jonkers (P.A.E.Jonkers@phys.rug.nl)
Date: Fri Sep 07 2001 - 15:24:22 BST

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    From: Philip Jonkers <P.A.E.Jonkers@phys.rug.nl>
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    To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    Subject: RE: FW: England humour
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    Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 16:24:22 +0200 (CEST)
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    Quoting Lawrence DeBivort <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>:

    >
    >
    > > Philip Jonkers
    >
    > > There must be some sociological reason for
    > > people taking up arms like that since they are prevalent all
    > > over the globe. Perhaps it's an expression
    > > of our natural lust for (tribal) warfare (survival of the
    > > fittest, the `it's either him or me' attitude) when we're
    > > lacking it now through modern-day society's inhibiting action
    > > (law, ethics, social control, etc.)
    > > It's seems to be our biological drive for animosity
    > > still calling the cards. Jerks from tucked away,
    > > long `forgotten' vestiges of brutal ancestry?
    >
    > Or perhaps it is motivated by the desire to sell tickets, increase TV
    > viewership, player popularity and commercial endorsements? The public
    > gets
    > sucked in by being told that the game is important and has national
    > significance.
    >
    > Frankly, who cares about England-Germany? (Or Washington Redskins-San
    > Diego
    > Chargers?) The world is neither a worse or better place for whatever
    > the
    > results were. It makes no difference.
    >
    > I did love the Hollywood-spoof that someone posted earlier here. LOL!
    > And
    > continuing apologies to the UK for the submarine Enigma rescue
    > misrepresentation on behalf of _many_ Americans who are embarrassed by
    > Hollywood's chauvinism (to say nothing of its cliche-ridden naivete
    > and
    > misuse of massive fianncial resources).

    Bingo! right on the spot... chauvinism that's the magic word
    over here. Sports fans apparantly feel that their countries'
    or city's `honor' is at stake every time an interland or
    intraland (english?) is to be played out. And yes,
    this exaggerated national (or local) sentiment is cranked up
    out of proportions by the media. The media, however, is run by
    ordinary people too, it's only that if they succumb to fan-dom
    they can exert a lot more power in expressing their fan-dom
    than `ordinary' people by launching media campaigns to
    advertise and cover matches.

    Nonetheless I can relate when you say can't understand what
    the heck's gotten into sports fans attributing so much value
    to the outcome of interland or local sports matches. Perhaps
    you should think of it is their precious outing. Scientists
    (ought to) get their kicks elsewhere,
    (usually) not by resorting to violence.

    Phil.

     
    > Lawry
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
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    ===============================================================
    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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