Team Sports

     Les Robinson the Good views sports with benevolence:
     The on-going dispute about sports has set me to thinking in a disputatious way. There is indeed scandal and bad sportsmanship connected with sports, but can we really say that team sports per se necessarily bring out the worst in people? Does business, or even academe, bring out the worst (or best) in them? I have seen and heard about, and you have certainly witnessed, much academic infighting and nastiness, but I believe it would be false to conclude that academia per se can bring out the worst in people.
     Any activity that involves human interaction and competition (and in academia there is MUCH competition to defend turf and egos) will witness occasional outbursts of temperament and selfishness. But then, it seems to me, it is the flaws in human nature, not the activity per se, that are at the root of these base reactions in a competitive situation. Competition is a two-edged sword: it can spur people to greater effort and excellence and at the same time it can inspire devious behavior aimed at "getting ahead" and "winning."
     Two of the main objectives of team sports is to promote excellence and at the same time to curb the baser instincts and to teach good sportsmanship. Examples of illegality and bad sportsmanship are amply publicized; good sportsmanship is seldom spotlighted, but I believe the good apples are far more common than the bad ones.


     My retort: I said that academic competition was as bad a sports competition, which has been spoiled by the yelling sports mobs. Witness the trial of the young Germans on trial for nearly killing a French policeman. Stanford academic fights have never gone that far, except perhaps in the minds of those involved.
     Academia has followed the example of sports. When I was young, the ideal was a well-read man. It was part of that archaic thing known as a liberal education. Now, instead of goals, we have number of publications and honors, and salary. It was once assumed that academics would all receive similar modest salaries. This is Big Game week. I want small games. Competition among religions, yes, but no religious terrorism and jihads.

Ronald Hilton - 11/19/99