The psychology of vicarious head butting.

I must be the only person in the world to not have seen or care to see Breaking Bad.

Maybe it’s just me; many folks whose opinions I respect love the show.

Network news coverage of the final episode showed a lot of people pointing guns at each other or sitting in chairs talking.

Once upon a time The Sopranos was all the rage, so I tried it.

*shrug*

Golly Clarence, what do you like?

I don’t have time to like much. I try to make time to appreciate a few things, though.

[2013-09-30]

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Click to enlarge: A recent Bing email sent to me. They obviously don’t know me very well, which is bad for a search engine. I can think of nothing more annoying than sitting next to these guys for more than 20 seconds. Notice the reversed #1 on the foam fingers. Thank you Paul H for pointing out that Photoshop faux pas.

Why do we attach ourselves so closely to TV shows, sports teams, political parties, etc, so close that if someone else doesn’t share our devotion, we become incensed as though they insulted us personally?

NPR sports commentator Shankar Vedantam today said there is a psychological reason.

"Some sports fans' lives depend on how well their teams are doing. In one theory, sports allow us to deeply identify with the athletes so it feels like we are playing the game." Examining The Psychology Of Sports Fans >

I think it goes deeper than that. More primal, and unpleasant. The arena, body paint, chants, chops, high sticking, fights, posturing, humiliating losses, demeaning victories, etc. have parallels in combat.

Contact sports celebrate violence. Team building, character, graceful losing, revenue, etc, are incidental or tributary.

If we weren't chasing a pig bladder around a field we’d probably be killing each other. And enjoying it just as much.

[2013-10-01]

 

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