Racism, Nationalism, Sports... It's Just a Game!

Recently Mr. Sepp Blatter, head or FIFA, stated that racist incidents during games should just be shrugged off by the players. They should just 'shake hands', he said, and all will be well. Because it's just a game after all. Here is a report with the part of the interview which started this controversy. People as high up as the British PM David Cameron have condemned Mr. Blatter for his statement and many have called for his resignation. Now I fully agree that FIFA is a strange corporation-type structure which seems corrupt in many ways. But there is certainly some truth in Mr. Blatter's words. Namely, SPORTS ARE JUST A GAME. I myself am a passionate sports fan, but I would not presume to ever say that sports are of any importance in the world. Sports are fun to play, fun to watch, and it can be fun to support a team or player. But what I see in the so-called 'world or sports' is just madness. Why are there racist incidents in the first place? Because someone is crazy enough about sports to abuse someone else racially over being a supporter or player of another team! This is a fanaticism bordering on that we see all the time with nationalism and patriotism - two concepts I have widely condemned on this blog.
Sports fanatics have a lot in common with nationalistic patriots and religious zealots. I tend to think people who hold a sports team as an actual value in their lives are somewhat deranged. I certainly support a team and am a loyal supporter, but I do not have any negative feelings toward supporters of other teams. I do not have any violent urges to abuse others over their own sports preferences. True, when my team loses I feel a bit bummed, and when it wins I feel happy, but none of my feelings are ever 'over the top'. But it is not so with the average raging sports fan. All this gets even more conflated when we talk about National Sports Teams. There irrational national pride mixes with sports fanaticism and creates a truly frightening combination.
In America this sports fanaticism is introduced more or less by forcable indoctrination through the school system. Each individual is pretty much destined to support the team of their local high school and then college. Nobody really seems to realize how totally out of proportion our response to simple sports has become. Colleges and universities invest millions in sports despite this having no educational value whatsoever. This is done, I assume, to breed loyalty among the student population. Young people, especially nowadays, are very susceptible to outside influence because they seem to be a bunch of nihilists (this is an empirical statement I am making after quite a few years of observation in a number of countries where I have lived). Nihilists with no principles always need some higher ideal to hang on to and give their life meaning. And those ideals are proposed by people who are all too eager to control and exploit the unknowing: States, Patriots, Relgious sects, or Secular sects (which I consider mainstream sports to be).

George Orwell wrote that "Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting." I think we need to think about this. Sports are just a game people! And let's leave it at that.