In his brilliant Technics and Civilization (1934) Lewis Mumford analyzed the massive commodification of sport—and this was in the 30’s! Here are a few of his bons mots:
The machine had come into our civilization, not to save man from servitude, but to make possible mass servitude to the immoral standards of consumption that had grown up among the military atrocities.
Thus sport which began as a spontaneous reaction against the machine, has become one of the mass-duties of the machine age. It is a part of the universal regimentation of life, for the sake of private profits or nationalistic exploit.
Sport has turned out to be one of the least effective reactions against the machine, the other less effective in its reaction to the machine, more ambitious and ultimately disastrous, war.
This use of sport of course has been with us since Rome delivered bread and circuses…
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allanbaker 