I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill
between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the would could
meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to
meet on the battlefield. Even if one didn't know from concrete examples (the
1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to
orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles.#
Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and
the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On the village
green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved,
it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as the
question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit
will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are
aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At
the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant
thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators:
and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies
over these absurd contests, and seriously believe - at any rate for short
periods - that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national
virtue.&