WHY SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON SPORTS???


Thousands of people are paid millions of dollars per year
for playing games. . .just games. . .that have nothing in
the way of real significance other than to the fanatics--
yes, that's where the term "fan" comes from. . .it's just
a short version of the word "fanatic."

So why?

Because sports is one of the ONLY places in a whole world
where people get rewarded for doing their best!!!


This is the only POSITIVE reason, the rest are NEGATIVE.


In schools the academically excellent are roasted as some
kind of "curve raiser" on a grading scale that should not
be measuring people any other way than objectively.

In the sports arenas those who outdo everyone else should
expect millions of dollars more in their next contract or
perhaps even tens of millions more. . .per year.

"In the real world" those who do too well are discouraged
from both above and below for upsetting functioning of an
already traditional "well oiled machine."  

In fact, in an assortment of jobs wider than you may want
to become aware of, there are rules against anyone making
more of a product in a workday than a specified number in
so many hours, and then they have to spend remaining time
in the break room, sometimes studying for night classes--
in a vain effort to get out of such a system, until their
new less blue-collar, more white-collar job turns out the
same way.

Academic superstars are never treated with the respect as
is given to sports superstars. . .they don't appear on an
assortment of television shows. . .they don't get clothes
from famous brand names. . .and they don't get drafted to
the major leagues with multi-million dollar contracts.

And the coaches. . .there are perhaps a dozen coaches for
colleges in the United States alone who receive millions,
per year, in multi-year contracts, not counting benefits,
such as those we never see in compensation figures.

Notre Dame, Texas, USC, even the Big Ten has a couple.

If you don't think any of this trickles down to students,
er. . .players. . .just look up some recent scandals, and
don't forget the latest Heisman Trophy winner, though the
fact is nearly a certainty that he will be exonerated via
a very short investigation.

Remember what it was first revealed that the highest paid
at certain famous colleges were not the presidents but an
assortment sports coaches?

By the way, even high school coaches in these areas get a
higher salary than the teachers, even than the professors
in the average college. . .not a million per year, but in
the 6 figures where high school teachers rarely tread.

Even in hockey, failing though it may be, there are still
places where you can find over a dozen players making the
millions of dollars per year on a single team.

In fact, looking more deeply, this may be true of all the
teams. . .or at least most of them.

In NFL football, there are a number of players who manage
to get close to $10 million in a year, through the "front
loading" of contracts to may more up front, and with some
other cute "creative accounting procedures," not even for
all the contracts for various commercial endorsements and
those can be greater than the actual salary.

Remember when Michael Jordan was getting more than all of
the people in the entire world making Nike shoes?

Roger Clemens, the famous baseball pitcher that won't get
to ever retire if baseball has its way, was up for salary
arbitration for $22 million dollars. . .that's a million,
a million dollars, per game, if he wins 22 games which is
highly unlikely.

Of course, one COULD argue that this is nothing compared,
across the way, to the Friends stars who got that salary,
without having to work up nearly as much of a sweat, with
the guarantee that they would get to the end of a season,
without having to go out as losers as every baseball team
but one does every single year, every football team, each
of the basketball teams, etc., etc., etc.

Hollywood is just a more obvious case of entertainment as
the highest value, with without the "redeeming value" for
their industry of making an actual effort. . .but I don't
have the time or inclination to talk much about Hollywood
other than to remind you that when the home video markets
first opened up, the Hollywood business plan was to wipe-
out-all-home-video as if it were "The Boston Strangler."

Just look up "The Boston Strangler" and "Jack Valenti."

Across the hall from the entertainment complex over there
in televisionland is the newly crowned imperial palace of
Infotainment. . .and I guess the Empress is Katie Couric,
bringing down some $15 million per year, though I must be
honest and tell you that in the first two weeks she maybe
did better than any of the rest of them, though she's got
a bigger salary, too.  By the way, it also appears that a
lot of new ad sales for The CBS Evening News came in, and
it was more than enough to cover her salary.

Shades of "Network". . .the movie that predicted that the
"Infotainment" industry would take over the world so long
ago that many of you may never have heard of it.

Interesting that none of the media pundits have brought a
thing like this into their perspectives.

Perhaps they are afraid of blowing the whistle. . .and in
the process blowing it on themselves. . . .

So, in an age where the rich are getting so much richest,
and the poor are getting so much poorest. . .where is the
media actually trying to take us?

They aren't trying to take us to school.

They make it obvious that the jocks will get the money.

They don't have to make it obvious they get the girls.

They seem to fear anyone who is more than 10% smarter and
to pass that fear on to everyone else.

Why are they afraid of brains instead of brawn?

Shouldn't they be more afraid of someone who could take a
person's head off, literally?

Oh, the thin veneer of civilization.

Does anyone remember civilization of Rome?

Does anyone remember how the focus on sport was a symptom
of that society's illness, an illness no one could/would/
should see from the inside?

Not to mention the corruption in all three branches of an
assortment of governmental levels by the executive branch
and the judicial branch and the legislative branch?

In the sense of the average citizen:

Big Brother doesn't have to watch you, 
Big Brother has got you watching him!!!

And THAT is the reason all these sports and infotainments
are given such huge monetary rewards.

To keep YOU out of the REAL WORLD and into a game world.