[00:05.10]Lesson 6
[00:12.11]How does the writer describe sport at the international level?
[00:17.20]
[00:19.03]I am always amazed when I hear people saying 
[00:21.63]that sport creates goodwill between the nations
[00:25.46]and that if only the common peoples of the would
[00:28.57]could meet one another at football or cricket, 
[00:31.99]they would have no inclination to meet on the hattlefield.
[00:36.66]Even if one didn't know from concrete examples
[00:40.36] (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) 
[00:43.66]that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred,
[00:49.46]one could deduce if from general principles. 
[00:54.12]Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. 
[00:58.65]You play to win,
[01:00.24]and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. 
[01:05.11]On the village green, 
[01:06.43]where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, 
[01:11.88]it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise:
[01:16.32]but as soon as a the question of prestige arises, 
[01:20.73]as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, 
[01:26.31]the most savage combative instincts are aroused. 
[01:31.05]Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this.
[01:36.32]At the international level, 
[01:38.15]sport is frankly mimic warfare. 
[01:41.79]But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: 
[01:49.13]and, behind the spectators, 
[01:51.47]of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests,
[01:57.52]and seriously believe -- at any rate for short periods -- that running,
[02:03.38]jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.