In my opinion states should care for the performance of their national team at any sport event since if that team wins it creates a renewed sense of pride and achievement in the local populace; which in turn helps create a better state through more ideas being generated about helping the country. Not to mention that in times of peace, a victory in a sports game can present a psychological victory over the losing countries which is in a sense a type of war without all the bloodshed. From my own experience when a state excels at something and achieves the ultimate goal of victory it creates a sense that one country is better than another. This is the same idea that comes with war and domination; when a country loses a war and a lot of its territory it begins to lose confidence in its government and the population begins to go into a sort of depression. While this may not be the same as losing at sports they are pretty similar. Having the opportunity to be in Argentina during the World Cup I have to say that when the national team lost it was as if each person had lost a member of their family. While this may have been more important to the Argentinians I am sure that each country has its own sense of disappointment and sadness at a huge loss. In conclusion, a country should invest a lot into the development of their sports teams in order to create a more confident nation which in turn leads to a better overall government, economy, and nation as a whole.
-Andrei Papai
You stated in your response, "when a state excels at something and achieves the ultimate goal of victory it creates a sense that one country is better than another." One countries feeling of superiority over another will not benefit the preponderance of civilians and will more likely lead to conflict. You continued to say that the loosing country will fall into a state of economic and political depression. Diplomacy and the UN strive to co-exist with one another harmoniously and often help out countries in "depression" for the benefit of the common welfare. Why should a country care about the performance of their individual team and cause unnecessary conflict between nations when the ultimate goal of diplomacy is to live and care for the people of the world as a whole and not idiosyncratically?
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to complement Andre on his use of a firsthand experience to connect his trip to Argentina and the World Cup. But, I have to agree with Rachel in that if Andre thinks a loss in a sport will cause “a sort of depression,” then is it really worth the risk of having your country’s teams participate in the games? By virtue of a competition, there can typically only be one winner, and there are many who lose. Later, Andre stated that fan reaction to the loss “…was as if each person had lost a member of their family.” If the disappointment results in the citizens of a country to feel so much pain, why would anyone want to cause that immense amount of suffering? In Andre’s conclusion, he stated, “…a country should invest a lot in the development of their sports teams…” But what is “a lot”? Countries need to balance priorities with regard to how its capital is spent. Sadly, some countries with the same opinion as Andre may want to spend “a lot” of money on the sports teams for the publicity and the win, instead of using “a lot” of money to save its starving people.
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