A Working Hyopothesis
The calendar of U.S. citizens is full of sporting activity, year round, that has created a spectator nation, sitting in the stands or in front of a TV set to root for professional and interscholastic teams in baseball, football, basketball, soccer, and many other organized athletic events. Now with fitness a national pursuit to combat obesity, sporting activity has been democratized, and everyone, muscular or scrawny, can be an amateur anything, golf, ping pong, running,etc.
By contrast, many people in Middle-Eastern countries seem to make great sport of ritualized beheading, rioting, kidnapping and torturing, flag- and effigy-burning, chest-beating, marching wearing hoods to erase their identities and make themselves more mobbish (under mobbish anonymity more evil becomes possible and likely), chanting death slogans, stone throwing, self-flagellation, burning down buildings, expolding cars and mosques and churches and embassies and public buildings and towers of commerce and hotels, and their biggest heroes are the (hari-kari, kamikaze) suicide-bombers of weddings and grocery shoppers and worshipers and bus riders and diners and, well, anyone, indiscriminately, whoever. Set me straight! Do they have the sporting-athletic games that could drain off much of their energy into healthy life styles and friendly competitiveness beneficial to society in teaching the principles of sportsmanship? I know they have soccer. In one infamous episode, they mounted a murderous attack on athletes at the Olympic Games. Is it great sport to put on their anonymizing headdress and bring down populations and nations by cowardly, sneak attacks? Is that an athletic event? Is there a Guiness record for the greatest number of victims or the largest building taken down? Is there no other way? No chin-wagging possible? No speech games, debate, argumentation? Are we entering a new dark age, as we go on a war footing to counter an ideology that allows no ethic but its own?
We must treat the situation of “terrorism” as a world threat, equal to global warming, or overpopulation, or weapons of mass destruction, that will not be overcome for at least five decades. During that time, the population of Earth will slowly become aware of the international criminal, murderous conspiracy it faces and attend to what it must do to resolve the issue. It will take that length of time to bring along 5-6 billion people to a time when the world will be free of the international threats of the radical, Islamistic, or other theocratic terrorists. “Death is better than living in this world with unbelievers among us.” Perhaps one mechanism of the transformation can be the institution of competitive speech and athletics to displace death-centric, internecine war and politics.
Set me straight! Could Islamic women compete in track and field events, or any athletic endeavor that requires suitable attire that may not be acceptable to Islamic males? Set me straight! Winter games require a lot of body covering, but the Middle-Eastern countries are not in climes to practice such games. Is Olympic ice skating out for the women? What are the games that could get them off the streets and into an arena or in front of their TVs for a respite from their usual mayhem? Set me straight!
Actually, I can forsee a great showdown coming, really great! It will be atomic. If Iran gets its nuclear weapons, as I believe that is ultimately what they seek, with that madman in control, it will be atomic warfare, internecine. It’s surely coming. Unless– Unless we have an effective world government.
A nation is a democratic society to the extent that its people are provided places and opportunities to learn and practice sportsmanship under the rules of the game, whether athletics or debate or business or–.
