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The Erosion of the American
Sporting Ethos: Shifting
Attitudes toward Competition
Joel Nathan Rosen
Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Figures,
appendix, notes, bibliography, and
index. x, 294 pp. $35.00 paper. ISBN:
9780786429172.
by Cesar R. Torres
[First Paragraph]
Reflecting approvingly on the ancient
Greek gusto for antagonism in On the Genealogy
of Morality (1994, first published
1887), Friedrich Nietzsche affirmed that
"if we take away competition from Greek
life, we gaze immediately into that pre-
Homeric abyss of a gruesome savagery of
hatred and pleasure in destruction" (p.
193). For Nietzsche, competition, athletic
and otherwise, was a practice that led humans
to flourish. As he clarified, without
"competitive ambition, the Hellenistic
state, like Hellenic man, deteriorates. It
becomes evil and cruel" (p. 194). In spite
of Nietzsche's praise, ancient Greek athletics
were criticized by their contemporaries.
Xenophanes, for one, thought that
successful athletes received a disproportionate
number of honors and rewards. |
