Chomsky on Sports

I rarely agree with Noam Chomsky on anything but here at Elliptic Blog is this terrific bit of Chomsky on Sports:

In fact, I have the habit when I'm driving of turning on these radio call-in programs, and it's striking when you hear the ones about sports. They have these groups of sports reporters, or some kind of experts on a panel, and people call in and have discussions with them. First of all, the audience obviously is devoting an enormous amount of time to it all. But the more striking fact is, the callers have a tremendous amount of expertise, they have detailed knowledge of all kinds of things, they carry on these extremely complex discussions...

I don't agree with Chomsky's dark somewhat conspiratorial conclusion but I had thought the very same thing but applied it to the built environment.

There are vast numbers of people who display diligence and perception when it comes to the ins-and-outs of professional sports. I overhear their conversations and they are lucid and articulate and well-informed. But they are blind when it comes to the built environment. So the mental energy and ability is there, I muse, but there is no interest in the real physical world around them.

Comments

[Stirling Newberry]

Very nice comment. Also a nice blog, adding it to my blog roll.