militarization of sports and society

When we began talking about citizen soldiers with military video games, I didn't connect with it much, I'm not a huge gamer. The games I play the most now-a-days include me karaoke-ing or dancing, so it didn't connect as much. I read an article in TIME about Modern Warfare 3, you can read it here, that I also felt spoke to the military culture of gaming. I agreed with our class discussions and the TIME article about militarization of society, but it was today when the video discussed the cross between military and sports culture that I realized, holy crap, we are a military society.

In athletics, using the phrase "battle" is not infrequent. Blood, sweat and tears are supposed to be willing sacrifices of athletes for a bigger cause than themselves. Athletes can also easily see what they are doing as a mission that they are seeking to accomplish. I completely get this because I have been entrenched in athletic culture my entire life. As I have gotten older I have seen it get more intense, more regimental and more structured. I've had curfews for it, diet specifications I'm expected to meet, and many, many push ups that I have had to do. I've gotten yelled at, have been told to do it for the people on either side of me and to forget the idea that I can't do something. This sounds a little like a life that could be compared to aspects of a military life.

I completely recognize that what I have done on a field hockey field is completely different than what I have friends doing in the military; but I admit that its not hard to feel that on that field that its a fight between me and them, and they are bad while I am good, and I deserve it more because I am a better person in so many ways. I'm sure that there are soldiers that would say something similar. I think that the NFL can take it to an extreme when they do Sunday Football games while dressed in camo at a military base, but comparing a game to war is not unfounded to me.

I know that I have not risked my life the same way that our soldiers do daily, and I also know that they have gone through many more physical demands than I ever would playing a college sports. The things is, I also feel that, as someone who as played a sport at a high level, I can empathize with at least part of their lives which actually could help me sympathize with them if they needed me to.