Quote by Lewis Mumford

Sport in the sense of a mass-spectacle, with death to add to the underlying excitement, comes into existence when a population has been drilled and regimented and depressed to such an extent that it needs at least a vicarious participation in difficult feats of strength or skill or heroism in order to sustain its waning life-sense.

Sport in the sense of a mass-spectacle, with death to add to

Summary

This quote suggests that the emergence of sports as mass spectacles, accompanied by the heightened element of danger, occurs when a society is heavily controlled and dispirited to the point where it craves an indirect engagement in challenging physical or heroic acts as a means to revive its diminishing sense of vitality. In such contexts, people require a substitute involvement in extraordinary feats of strength or skill in order to cope with the overwhelming suppression and ennui they experience in their daily lives.

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By Lewis Mumford

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