Nectaris

What would constitue a "contribution to society?" Would say, creating a foundation to support research in the fight against cancer be a contribution to society under your guidelines? How about creating need-based scholarship funds at the university level? How about allowing a dying child to fulfill a dream of meeting one of his or her heroes? How about donating money to a local school system so that kids will have new textbooks? How about funding and devoting time for AIDS research and education? How about encouraging and participating in events to help increase literacy among school children?

All of these things have been done by athletes--and for the most part I've only included athletes from a limited geographic area. Are you saying these are not worthwhile contributions to society? Where is your bar set on what constitutes a contribution? Or are you saying if an athlete does something, it per se has no value to society, even if it does indeed have a beneficial impact on society?

Dave

neo_mp5

but not because they're athletes. your point is irrelevant

Nectaris

You made the statement that no athlete contributes to society, and I pointed that athletes do contribute to society. You've now arbitrarily added an additional requirment that the athlete has to further a socieital interest based on the fact that he is an athlete. How do you know each person's motivation for doing something? I think maybe you're trying to say that the direct action of athletics is not beneficial to society, which I realize is the topic of the OP, however I was merely addressing your one statement, painting a group of peoople with a broad brush.

If I were to apply that fine a point, no profession could ever be beneficial to society. After all what benefit does putting ink on paper have?

Dave

Opera Nut

Godot Quote: i've come to the conclusion that posting on internet message boards is immoral. they take extremely mentally capable people away from their paid work, and those people get highly highly overpaid to WASTE TIME professionally. and the people watching are not only tuning out the real world to concentrate entirely on a thread, and getting fat sitting there reading, they are puting a lot of emotion into supporting an argument when they could be just as passionate about something more important. plus all the money that goes into supporting the message board, the internet, etc., that's a lot going to waste

what are your thoughts on this?
Unquote.

My answer is that I do not have any paid work. Nobody is paying me to waste time here. I'm "extremely mentally capable" as is described by Godot, and have lots of education and skills, but am unable to find a job working for someone else. My attempts at starting my own business using my talents have met with failure too.

neo_mp5

i said being an athlete does not contribute to society. your point is irrelevant

BDS

Does any entertainer "contribute to society", Neo? If so, why do you differentiate athletes from other entertainers?

There are many theories about the utility of "play' in general. Of course "play" is defined as an activity with no direct or overt utility, but 1) that doesn't mean it has no utility, and 2) all of the arts are forms of 'play".

Cutter

Opera Nut, I think you'll find Godot was taking the piss out of the OP. At least, that's how I interpreted it.

neo_mp5

athletes are not entertainers. the point is irrelevant

Godot

Oh dear.
You weren't to take that post as literal Opera Nut. Not in the least. My post was a simple reworking of the OP in which I substituted "internet message boards" for "professional sports." I also tweaked a couple of other words to make the sentences flow more smoothly. I do not remotely endorse the position entrenched in said post. It was a demonstration of the vacuousness of the OP through a reductio ad absurdum.

Godot

1. Provide an operational definiton for "athlete."

2. Provide an operational definiton for "contribut[ion] to society."

And then, maybe, just maybe you might want to provide some substantiation for your assertions. Otherwise, assertions they will remain, and we will continue to knock them over as easily as we have thus far.