Is sports today nothing short of an unethical war | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.

Is sports today nothing short of an unethical war

Scheme of the Essay

Exposition: It has become common that defeated teams are condemned, jeered at and even maltreated. After every defeat some heads roll.

Rising Action: Competitive spirit has deadened our moral sense and conscience.

Climax:

(1) Sports are no longer linked to good health.

(2) Millions are given to sports persons for endorsing products but this money imports irregularities cheating and terrorism (3) Drugs that are difficult to trace in the tests are given to sports persons.

(4) Sports rivals are injured in the field or outside the field.

(5) Violent wrestling bouts follow almost no rule of the game.

(6) Chase is growing chauvinism in sports. Ending: It is not a healthy trend.

If sports become free for all, the games will be nothing less than a war. The winning teams are eulogized by the nation they belong to, but defeated teams are laughed at condemned, stoned, and even persecuted. Many heads roll and investigations are conducted to discover the cause of defeat. Is it a healthy attitude to sports? There is a growing disregard for utility and ethical aspects in sports, particularly spectacular sports which attract a very large number of people. While the entertainment value of sports is significant, neglect of these and other aspects will prove costly.

Traditionally, sports have been linked to good health but this linkage is getting highly suspect now due to the fact that major sports tournaments enjoyed by millions of people are now sponsored by manufacturers of liquor, cigarettes, and junk food. Advertisements of these products, which are early harmful to health, are flashed time and again on TV screens to people who are following the sports tournaments. What is more, sports heroes who are role models for millions of young people see nothing wrong in advertising these products.

Sports were earlier linked to good health because love for a game clearly meant playing that game. But now many keen lovers of glamourous sports do not believe in playing the game themselves. They are quite happy to watch the game that too generally on a TV set. They take great joy in the feats of their sports heroes without making the minimum effort to join this or the other game which provides healthy exercise. Hence instead of providing physical exercise by keeping them glued to their TV sets for long hours.

Spectacular sports attract massive advertising and it has become another medium for spreading excessively consumerist values. Several news reports keep telling us about how many millions are being given to our sports heroes by various companies for endorsing their products and the sports star becomes even better known for his millions than for his sporting skills. What is even worse is that the involvement of this big money also leads to several irregularities, cheating, and tensions which sometimes erupt into violence. Even the rules of some sports have been changed to make room for telecasting of advertisements.

High commercial stakes have also led to an increasing resort to drugs by sports persons to enhance their performance reaching a peak in the Seoul Olympics when the ‘fastest man on earth’ turned out to be a drugged man. There have been several shocking cases of drug-detection since then despite the attempts to use drugs which are more difficult to detect.

The dubious use of modern technology is not confined to finding new drugs which are difficult to trace in the tests that are required for sports persons. High technology has been used by powerful economic interests to change some sports in such a way that there is less room for sporting skills and much greater scope for the advertising of their expensive products. According to Gerald Segal, “Formula car racing (or its American version of cars have to set complex rules about the permitted technology in order to leave the drivers with some say in who wins. Such sports tend to be driven by the technological imperatives of the large car maker as well as the advertising they carry. Yachting falls into a similar category, where commercialism and technology are in charge.”

Some time back Nancy Kerrigan, a famous skater of the USA was attacked by persons close to a rival skater Tonya Harding. The aim was to injure her to such an extent that she would be kept out of the forthcoming Winter Olympics. Commenting on the attitude of Harding, a leading magazine had written at that time, “Harding has said that when she skates, she often sees dollar signs.”

Commenting on how such attitudes are spreading Robert Guy wrote “Winning at all costs is a growing mania and menace in America, a form of war permeating the minds and souls of many contestants, as personified in football and authorised in boxing. Contestants would not only maim their opponents but now seem willing to sell their soul to achieve a win, no matter how tarnished.'”

Highly violent wrestling events are now being increasingly organised to pander to the sadistic instincts of people. For example in ‘ultimate fighting’ or ‘extreme fighting’ shows, combatants fight with the minimum of rules until one is unconscious, disabled, or taps the canvas signaling surrender. In one such event, a man’s face was pounded to a pulp and it has been reported that spectators at these events savour “full-force kicks to faces and elbows smashed into temples.”

Yet another cause of concern is the growing chauvinism associated with major sports events. Instead of promoting harmony between two nations or regions, this attitude results in escalations of tensions which sometimes erupt in violence. This is a complete negation of the role of sports in society which is to teach team spirit and improve relationships between different communities.

While more and more effort is being put into organizing sports tournaments as million-dollar extravaganzas, sadly these basic aspects of sports are being neglected. One hopes for the sake of sports that these ethical aspects of sports will not be ignored, in the future, or at least not ignored to such a glaring extent. One obvious reform that is needed is to re-establish the fast-losing link between sports and health. Commercial considerations should not be allowed to come in the way of those products which are clearly harmful to health through sporting events. This can be substituted by socially relevant advertisements on healthy living and nutritious products sponsored by public and private agencies dedicated to better health. Secondly, the substantial financial gains earned by spectacular sports should be plowed back into promoting sports in the remotest villages so that all children get a good chance to excel in sports. If given half a chance, so many of our tribal youths can turn into potential world champions in archery while children of fisherfolk can be the future champions in aquatics. Our present sports policies are completely distorted and need immediate correction.