Jocks vs. Nerds: The Epic Struggle
So the Olympics are over and I'm surprised that I got caught up in the spirit of it. Canada broke their own record medal count and there've been some great Olympic moments and heroes. I was listening to CBC and now there's all these appeals to keep the momentum going to 2010 so we can kick ass in Vancouver. And they've renewed the whole funding-for-our-amateur-athletes appeals. And honestly, I couldn't care less if athletes were properly funded or not.
Sure, there's something to be said about the spirit of competition and all, but as far as the funding of non-critial programs is concerned, I'd rather put money into the space program or the arts or cultural development. Isn't funding athletes just paying money to make sure you win in sports? In a way it's rather selfish. I'd rather give money to arts or science because you're contributing to the world culture. A song or a piece of art or a scientific breakthrough transcends boundaries and belongs to the global society whereas a gold medal in hockey only gives you bragging rights.
Put it this way...I'm proud as hell of Cindy Klassen for showing that Canada's practically untouchable in women's speed skating but I'm prouder that Willard Boyle won the Oscar of engineering awards for inventing the CCD which is used in everything from consumer electronics to the Hubble telescope(http://tinyurl.com/z6lu5).
I guess it comes down to whether you draw national pride from winning or from contributing. I'm the the latter category.
posted by The Man with the Plan @ 12:34 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
i think it's all the same. people want to be remembered.
artists and scientists want to leave a mark as much as athletes. oscars or nobel prizes are exactly the same as olympic medals. they are trophies awarded for greatness. and if you achieve greatness you'll be remembered.
all through history, achievements in all fields have been largely driven by individuals trying to be remembered. people name everything after themselves. cities, buildings, companies, geographic features, astronomical objects, laws, species living or extinct, everything. and the rest of us enforce this. we celebrate famous people and write their biographies, film their documentaries, build their statues, etc.
and it's ironic that we celebrate greatness using awards that are themselves named after people. the nobel prize, the stanley cup, etc.
it's all kind of silly if you ask me. so what if you're the greatest guy in the world? life is not a contest. we all die at the end. and if your motivation is to serve others or advance mankind, that's selfless and great. but humans will all die off, too. so it's still pointless.
desires to achieve greatness, whatever the motivation, is really an illusion of grandeur.
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