Sports, nationalism and patriotism Notes for COMM

Transcript:Sports, nationalism and patriotism Notes for COMM:
Sports, nationalism and patriotism Notes for COMM 412 Patriotism vs. Nationalism George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism” (1945) By "nationalism" I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled "good" or "bad." But secondly—and this is much more important—I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By "patriotism" I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. Butterworth’s argument “My purpose is to examine the ways in which the “national pastime” functioned rhetorically after 9/11 and the US invasion of Iraq to constitute national unity—a unity that threatened, ironically, the very democracy it sought to preserve. These quasi-religious rituals of ballpark tributes helped to transform the communal healing process into an endorsement of the politics of war.” What's at stake: Democratic practice in public culture. Democratic expression increasingly is at risk of being silenced in the name of consensus and unity. Issues: Rhetorically constructed notion of patriotism Sports arenas became sites of memorializing post 9/11 Sport, but especially baseball and its quasi-religious rituals, are uniquely constitutive of American national identity. It can ideologically discipline the notion of what is 'American’ and what is not. Ritualistic performance of American faith and patriotism Social Drama & Ritual Discourse that produces an absolute sense of “us” or “them” threatens democratic pluralism. Rituals not only may affirm values and norms but also may become instruments of political or ideological control. “Civil religion.” As Robert Bellah argues, civil religion is a uniquely American attempt to create public rituals and symbols that are “perfectly in accord with the will of God.” The Mythology of Sport Sport, in fact, long has played a