Rivers of rhetoric and moralisms, let us watch the Olympics in peace: it is “only” sport
I put these thoughts on paper right in the middle of the Tokyo Olympics. Someone does the count of our medals in absolute terms, others (the More Europe party to be precise) do what we would have if the United States of Europe existed and still others do the counting of the medals "stolen" from us. From the privileged observatory of my favorite chair in front of the TV, I observe with amused detachment how much conspiracy and how full of hidden and esoteric meanings the journalists are putting us on the very normal sporting results of our teams. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it sucks. All here, in the most Olympic calm and without in the least influencing the really important things in life, without even thinking of adding a new disease (having lost) to the already too many in circulation.
To be honest, for decades now we have been hearing, punctually out of all proportion, the most dull phrase that Baron Pierre Fredy de Coubertin could say about the importance of participating instead of winning. If he ever said it, it would be a colossal fool. You compete to win and, if this were not the case, there would be no placings, rankings and related medals. At this point you must have understood that sport in general and I look at each other with sympathy without completely penetrating each other and that for me sport is something relaxing to watch on TV and listen to on the radio if I do not find things that I like more. I must clarify this because in this country of healthy and sporty people, that of aspiring patients in the emergency room for the frenzied post-game carousels, if it were not immediately made clear which side I am on, that is that of the lukewarm neighborhood of the few who are not willing to arguing with friends and relatives over sport, and if I didn't immediately admit that my opinion is not very widespread in Italy, I would be misunderstood. But
I could also object to something, especially when I see sportsmen treated as saviors of the homeland and national standard-bearers.
First of all, I would like to at least remove from the list of heroes who will go down in history those who collect figures that do not even come close to the sums earned with normal work by dozens and dozens of people put together, including those beggars who retire with 500- 600 euros per month after a lifetime of work. Without these, I would withdraw the national hero card (with relative appointments to Knights and Commanders to the Order of the Republic) from those who have made an excellent paid and prestigious job in sport, as well as well rewarded by a grateful national notoriety which, in our area, they didn't even have Cavour or Marconi, who made history seriously. From my point of view, I would find it more correct to separate the comments on good sports results from the teaching of life, from the models to follow for young people, from the right way of dressing, talking, eating and drinking. I fear that we are increasingly forgetting that sport should be mainly fun and health (I would have some doubts about the latter, however, seeing how sport is done today).
Although I find nothing wrong with the flag waving after a sporting success, I must admit that I would like to see some more tricolor when some Italian does something really important in the world or maybe wins a Nobel (preferably those that still count for something), so as I would have seen much more favorably even a modest flag waving on the return of our military contingent to Afghanistan (where, moreover, we left about fifty of our boys on the field). In the same way, always speaking of our young people who wear the Italian flag sewn on their uniforms and certainly not for those mind-boggling figures, I would have quietly considered it more deserving to demonstrate with Italian flags for those of our marines who have spent years and years kidnapped. in India for not having shot (so the official investigation says) the unfortunate fishermen of Kerala. We are too busy demonstrating in favor of Patrick Zaki (his only merit towards our nation: having been a student of the University of Bologna), who, if anything, should make us reflect on the level of democracy of our beloved Egypt, perhaps giving up a few holidays in Sharm as a form of legitimate retaliation.
We are so convinced that our new sports heroes, even those who do not know how to renounce utterances that are frankly embarrassing for them and for us, can cement an Italy now devoid of any glue and without the plot of which the social network should be made. We are not talking, then, of the ecstatic narration of the privileged employees of that absurd freak called Rai , so oversized and full of additional free social and moral connotations. I don't know about you, but it causes me the immediate urge to press the key on the remote control, as soon as the interviewer of the moment tries frantically to highlight the indispensable implications of the Olympian out of shape or simply less strong than others, I go mad. He did not lose because others won, but he lost because Covid , because the enormous social weight of expectations, because his head was disconnected from his legs, because after all he is still a boy and so on, in an endless crescendo of nonsense. that make us assume that we are the best in the world in sports (except bad luck or referees sold) so we must immediately eviscerate what obscure reasons may have led to an unjustified and unjust defeat.
But what is worse, and it also hurts young people very badly, is this absurd culture of the winner (sorry, the winner ) of superlative performance, of having to run more than others, of having a sculpted and muscular physique rather than a properly nourished brain. . Woe to young people that even without energizing drinks (to say the least) they can still be up to the task. Disdain and damnation to those who try to teach children that, although competitions in general are made to win them and absolutely never to participate in them, even if they were to lose nothing serious happens, indeed, it could well do them good. Sport is a game and it must remain so and sport must be played with a smile and thanks to God who allows it. If sport is meant to be an absolute school of life and for everyone, first of all those who are not interested in practicing it, if sport is meant to make a superordinate value to others, such as, very banal, that of maintaining oneself and their family with decorum and honesty and, in general, to behave well, we will not go far. But, above all, we will raise a generation of gassed, arrogant, fanatics of performance as an end in itself, unable to lose, angry with those who have won and unable to admit that not all of us can do everything. In short, a generation of bimbiminkia (I know, it is an inelegant neologism, but I must admit that I like it very much and here it clearly expresses what I mean).
The post Rivers of rhetoric and moralisms, let us watch the Olympics in peace: it's “only” sport appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/fiumi-di-retorica-e-moralismi-lasciateci-guardare-in-pace-le-olimpiadi-e-solo-sport/ on Mon, 02 Aug 2021 03:41:00 +0000.