Politics as blood-sport

Human beings are watchers. We have an innate need, even compulsion, to see what’s going on with others. We are always looking to get some satisfaction from what we see in, and about, the people in our lives, and especially those we don’t even know ourselves. In the most benign instance, it’s no more than “people watching.” The usually innocent observing passersby at the mall, a concert, in the park – wherever – and imagining who they are, what they’re up to, perhaps their conversations, motives, and realities. Yet we are not wired to be merely observers, onlookers, or voyeurs; deep in the human psyche we long to be engaged *spectators* - willing active participants from the sidelines, egging on the action, cheering and jeering the players in the episodes taking place in front of us. And this has been true forever.

Think about it: David takes on Goliath – before this story became a metaphor for the underdog, it is a brutish myth about the likely obliteration of a weakling by a gruesome and powerful strongman. Gladiators in the Roman Coliseum provided such entertainment, not merely as words on a page, whether fighting one another or attempting to subdue wild beasts. Medieval jousting contests pitted knight against knight in violent quests for blood and valor. In our own day, much of the same can be said of pro wrestling and the NFL, with their amped-up, testosterone-fueled exhibitions to demonstrate physical and emotional dominance over an opponent.

Fascinating that the human desire, delight in promoting and witnessing contestants do battle – even unto the death – has also always been found in the political arena (heck, even the common use of that phrase, “political arena,” goes toward this point). Lauded are the successes of a “political animal.” And of course Clausewitz declared “war is but the continuation of politics by other means” – equating political intrigue with waging combat.

It should be no surprise that the current election cycle – for so many reasons the most insidious, aggressive, insulting, heart-wrenching in history – has drawn so much attention from the masses. Especially due to the non-stop available barrage of media coverage, and the idea that one candidate or another or some other actor, is going to do something, say something, even more outrageous or outlandish every day – we cannot help but be riveted. Politics now calls on our basest instincts, like those who are compelled by a train wreck as if occurring in slow motion. Politics satisfies our primal blood-lust.

How do we return sportsmanship to the playing field of public life?