(12-27-2017 08:57 PM)ark30inf Wrote: (12-27-2017 05:37 PM)Cyniclone Wrote: Piggybacking on the OP: Is there a single, event-horizon moment that would have you seriously consider no longer watching football? A major star dying on the field after a hit? A younger Hall of Famer having a Chris Benoit breakdown? A definitive medical study showing severe cognitive disabilities for a sizable number of players at all levels? Would a cumulative effect be enough?
Why do we allow people jump out of airplanes for no real useful purpose when sometimes people crash into the ground?
Why do we allow people put on wing suits and sail at 60 miles per hour over jagged rocks when there is absolutely no useful purpose for doing so and sometimes people crash into those rocks?
Why do we allow people free climb mountains for absolutely no reason when safety gear is available?
Why do we allow people fly in experimental airplanes that they built themselves?
Why do we allow people to climb Everest for no useful purpose when there are dead frozen bodies littering the trail?
Why do we allow motorcycle ice racing with spiked wheels?
Why did we allow Dale Earnhardt to do something that ended up with him slamming into a wall?
Why was snow skiing not stopped with Sonny Bono and Liam Neeson's wife?
Why do we allow recreational motorcycles on the same highways with 18-wheelers and cars?
Horseback riding, show jumping, bull riding, gymnastics, cheerleading, hockey, MMA, bicycle riding, parkour, base jumping, etc., etc., etc.
Why is football being particularly singled out? Why the push to kill football and no real push to kill all these other dangerous activities?
I'm guessing that it is because it is a working man's entertainment and is seen as more "common" and "uncouth" and more uniquely American by various journalists and opinion leaders.
(If you really want to do something.....stop kids under 18 from using ATV's/3-wheelers).
I would strongly suggest that it is because it is aggressive in nature and we now have an audience that fears the image of strong aggressive males. After all we are speaking of a generation where the slight raising of one's voice is now considered a hostile act rather than emphasis, where looking someone in the eye is invasive, and where all forms of correction of poor performance on the job is inappropriate.
I think quite often now about the prospects for our future as a nation and I cringe at what kind of world I believe my grandchildren will inherit. All of these omnipotent ways of thinking inside the limited world of the cyber box vox populi scare the hell out of me.
BTW in your list you failed to mention the extra exposure to solar radiation that all airline pilots and flight attendants suffer from each time they take us up to 35,000 ft. I suppose everyone who uses that mode of transportation is an uncaring advantaged dolt to put all of those poor people at such a high risk of advanced cellular degradation huh?
If the world has proven one thing to be true in every epoch it's that a certain degree of machismo and aggression is essential for survival and certain amount of organized restraint of aggression is essential for civilization. Too little aggression and nations fall, their citizens are enslaved, suffer genocide, and/or are dispossessed leaving them little with which to survive. Too much aggression and civilization fails.
I consider pugilistic sports and marshal arts to be essential tools in preparing an otherwise peaceful people a means through which to approximate a mental preparedness for group survival. Technology won't keep us free, in fact it may only provide a more compelling means by which to enslave us. But all war essentially devolves to boots on the ground. When that happens survival depends in large part upon plain old primitive aggression. If you can't get in touch with that you die.
The attitudes, sensitivity, and lack of social skills of this present generation simply are byproducts of an education and values system that have only prepared our grandchildren to be slaves and victims. They all think that life owes them everything, that hard work is oppression, and that there will always be a police officer or good guy there to defend them. That much delusion never ends well.
So whether football prepares someone for having CTE is not as fearful to me as not having a means of learning physical confidence under stress, the concept of 11 people working together selflessly to accomplish a goal, and the experience of a mild form of hand to hand combat. Why do I feel that way when CTE is so awful a prospect? Because with the breakdown of face to face social connections and a sense of being in this together a emotionally and physically unprepared person hasn't got a chance. You don't solve bullying by expelling the victim along with the bully. You solve bullying by standing up to one and standing up for their victims. Our weaknesses only emboldens the aggressive. Our strength only discourages them. Our hardscrabble generations of pioneers fought the civil war, helped to end WWI, helped to win and did essentially end WWII. We still have young people capable of tackling the horrors of combat, but they are no longer the majority. I think that started changing with Viet Nam where the privileged largely avoided the responsibility of service. In a world with increasing population and decreasing natural resources our enemies now only fear our technology. When that advantage is equalized they will be at our throats because they no longer fear our resolve, because they know we no longer have toughness, or the knowledge of self defense, or the courage of our ancestors. And what's even worse is that as a society we cry victim over the most minor affronts and argue about who can & can't use public bathrooms, and nothing screams come destroy us as well as that. It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad.