Sports, Society's Virtue

Baseballs, not grenades.

 In another quote that's probably more wordy than you remember, John Adams famously wrote to his wife: 

"The Science of Government it is my Duty to study, more than all other Sciences: the Art of Legislation and Administration and Negotiation, ought to take Place, indeed to exclude in a manner all other Arts.—I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine."

Adams referred, of course, to his role in the still-ongoing Revolutionary War (this letter was sent in 1780) and his upcoming role as the second U.S. President. Adams saw the oft-unpleasant exercises of statesmanship as a necessity that was both his duty and opportunity to achieve, in order that future generations might have the freedom and resources necessary to practice the gentler arts, such as philosophy and pottery. 

This is a noble aim, and one that motivates much of mankind's progress. Men do not plant trees for their own shade. But Adams' paragraph does not encompass all of mankind's experience. Not all of us take naturally to painting and poetry, even when given ample opportunity. In fact, the desire to compete, to fight, to succeed, to conquer is an innate biological desire in much of mankind (especially men, although I'm going to generally refer to the whole of mankind). Men are fallen. Unless restrained, little holds us back from our worst, most self-satisfying desires. And this is why much of human civilization's history records societies marked by might-makes-right, dog-eat-dog battles for supremacy. 

In the past four hundred years, society as a whole has slowly progressed to the point where our normal lives are rarely interrupted by wandering raiders, and much of civilization can live relatively (shockingly, compared to human history) peaceful lives. But that biological urge to conquer stuff has not left us. And that is where sports come in. 

As America has become increasingly wealthy and leisurely, organized sports have grown from literally nothing in the late 1800s to a near-trillion-dollar industry today, which perfectly correlates with the point I'm making. Our men aren't being sent overseas to waste their lives in the trenches of Saint-Mihiel (an unvarnished positive), but we haven't lost that innate urge to compete. We still want that thrill of competition, the exhilaration of drawing up careful battle plans. So what fills the void? Sports. 

This is why sports is society's virtue. We have achieved that human goal of "not having to kill each other to survive." (Killing each other, in this author's perspective, is bad and unneighborly). Instead, we confine ourselves to the more civilized battlefields of the gridiron or the basketball court, where we have some of the same exercises of skill, strength, and cunning, but everyone shakes hands at the end of the day. This is a good! It is good that our young men are learning to throw baseballs instead of grenades. It is good that our sharpest tactical minds are drawing up plays to defeat the Green Bay Packers instead of the U.S.S.R. We still need men and women who are competitive, strong, and confident. Sports train up those impulses that make us better people. Sports are one of the last things helping to unite local communities in an increasingly online world. Sports help us work together as a team, instead of withdrawing into the subdued loners that our mothers fear we'll all become. I speak of sports as society's virtue; that is, it makes our society as a whole better. This does not mean sports is inherently or necessarily good, that it is always good, or always has good effects on those who participate. You, personally, may have a harmful relationship with sports, as you may with pretty much anything. But in the net, our society profits from it. 

Video games, to a lesser extent, fill some of this void as well. (Yes, esports are sports. Yes, chess is a sport.) Video games allow us to become heroes, to become the main character of our favorite story. Video games allow you to save the princess, solve the mystery, or save the world. And I think that's also a desire most of us have, albeit unfulfilled. Real life is not heroism. Real life is the routine, the day-to-day consistency of doing what's right, making good but boring choices. (You could, if prone to cloying, describe that as the Real Heroism. I shall refrain.) But in that dreary day-to-day consistency, at least we have sports to give us entertainment and community.