American media commentators love to militarize sports,
especially football. Military terms pervade American sports portrayal as well
as the language of coaches. Commentators bless players with the benediction of
“he or she is a real warrior.” I have real doubts about this language and
metaphor, but the language of fight and battle seem endemic in the history of
sport and our own understanding of it.
So I want to think about two metaphors—warrior and soldier—for athletes.
I do not believe athletes are warriors and if we have to use a military
metaphor, I think they are soldiers.
We use with the metaphor of warrior to bring up three
separate but related aspects of individual athletes:
1)
How an athlete relates to goals.
2)
How an individual relates to pain.
3)
How an individual relates to obstacles.
4)
How an individual relates to team.
The media commentators and even athletes often call upon the
word warrior to draw attention to the will power and courage required to drive
to achieve a goal. They really invoke it when an athlete plays with pain or
overcome a serious personal, physical or opponent obstacle. The myth of warrior
entices folks because it seems to capture this aspect of personal courage and will
power to achieve a goal under adverse conditions. Notice no one uses warrior in
a team concept, there is a good reason for this.
By and large when warriors face soldiers, soldiers win. Soldiers combine the moral advantages of being a
warrior with mission cohesion and loyalty. The Romans, Chinese, Mongols, Swedes
and Germans have proven this for centuries. The Germans and Mongols did not
succeed until they turned their warriors bands into soldiers and armies. There
are exceptions like Afghanistan for the last four thousand years, but over time
soldiers trump warriors. Why is this so and why is it to inappropriate to call
athlete’s warriors?
Let’s start with the difference between warriors and
soldiers. As the word hints, warriors make war.
Warriors specialize in mayhem. The word derives from deep Germanic roots
meaning to confuse or disrupt. Warrior cultures are based upon honor and
individuality. The warriors, like the early Greek warriors before the Greeks
invented the phalanx and hoplites, glorified great individuals like Achilles or
Ajax. The Viking Sagas or even the great Sumerian epics reflect the same world.
Great and magnificent individuals dominate their world by beating every other
individual in combat.
The world of warriors remained resolutely zero-sum. My honor
depended upon your dishonor. Duels and conflicts pervaded the touchy world of
warriors who often had their own warrior class. Warriors live together in wary
disharmony always prickly about being “diss’d” and picking fights. Honor could
be gained by beating others but it could all be lost in one battle. Warrior
cultures were driven by glory to win and despair at the costs of losing.
Warriors do not make good team players. Viking bands
regularly broke up over squabbles among warriors. The great Celtic sagas depict
a world of endless feuds. In the classic story of Greek warrior society the ship
Argos starts out on a trip to find
the Golden Fleece. The expedition represents the greatest collection of
warriors in Greece. Yet squabbles, defections and internal fights split the
entire enterprise. They succeed not through warrior force but guile.
Most athletes do not function as warriors. Maybe some lonely
long distance sports seem to be the metaphorical equivalent of warriors. Parallel
sports like swimming, running or field sports feature athletes who must compete
alone in linear competition suggest the lone individual quest. These parallel
athletes, however, do not fight each other physically, but they do seek to
surpass each other and win. Every event ends with a winner, and everyone else
loses. Here sport resembles warrior culture contests.
But even here people may be kidding themselves. These
individual athletes need trainers, supporters and competitors to practice
against. In long distance running and cycling they need teammates to protect
them, pace them and clear the way as Lance Armstrong repeatedly demonstrated in
Tour de France.
The origin of the word tells us everything. Warriors war;
they celebrate individuals, berserkers, rogues and heroic individual quests. Soldier
comes from the Latin word solidus—solid,
firm, strong and forged. In the middle ages soldier meant people who got paid
to fight. The pay suggested that they devoted time and energy and become
professionals.
More importantly soldiers fought as part of an army, as
members of a unit. From time immemorial leaders speak as does the Art of War of the “spirit” or “morale” or “unit cohesion” of soldiers. We
know that troops on the field seldom fight for glory, but for each other. They
overcome fear and pain together. They stay disciplined under stress. They
execute with discipline and precision, they follow orders and plans and have
planned for contingencies.
Soldiers like athletes on teams unite in a mission. The
mission may be to win a game, to excel at what they are doing or to win a
championship. Like soldiers these athletes fight one game, one day, one battle
at a time. They learn under pressure and above all they fight as a unit and win
or lose as a unit.
Soldiers exhibit patience. They may stand around and wait, but
they train, practice and work with each other. They live under authority, and
they rely upon each other. If one fails, the others stand endangered.
Soldiers unlike glory seeking warriors coordinate with each
other. They share loss and pain and glory. They help each other up when down
and buoy each other when up.
Being a soldier grows from a form of selflessness that
begins with the willingness to learn skills and to get better. It grows into
unit cohesion and loyalty where individual skills mesh so that the unit or team
can accomplish more than a single warrior. Every soldier fears the selfish
glory-seeking individual who prides him or herself on being a warrior. They
endanger the group and team. Warriors cannot be relied upon in crunch time
because they care more about their own glory and reputation than the team’s success.
People do not warrior on,
they soldier on.
If we must speak of athletes in military terms, let’s get it
right, soldiers not warriors.
This is great Pat!
ReplyDeleteYou are a piece of trash. Athletes are not soldiers, you moron.
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