Violence and Sports

That there is much violence in society is something that would be hard to dispute. Saul Bellow, a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, has noted in interviews that hundreds of millions of people have been murdered in the twentieth century. Modern man has become accustomed to brutality and savagery. People in modern America complain that violence in many neighborhoods is so common and excessive that they are afraid to go outside of their houses (Bellow, 1982, p. 49-50).

Bellow goes on to note that violence in modern society may be linked to the isolation and powerlessness felt by people living in urban areas. Bellow presents a vision of modern society in which people sit at home in terror, read horror stories in the newspapers, and watch violent television shows. Bellow singles out the hard core welfare society people in the cities as people living in perpetual chaos and noise, and with whom there is no reasoning. According to Bellow, after a day in that jungle most people prefer to expel the violence from their thoughts behind closed doors with entertainment and security precautions in place.

Thus, the terror and violence of society are organi

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1984 World Series victory was celebrated by street mobs that left eighty people injured and one person dead (Editor, 1985, p. 8-9). Scientists are very interested in what it is about sports that releases violence in some people. It has been theorized that the English soccer hooligans who killed 38 Italian soccer fans were practicing ultraviolence in response to a culture which keeps a stiff upper lip in denying violence. Other British sociologists look at the social origins of fan violence in terms of other variables. The British soccer rioters were found to be mainly youth aged 16 to 24. Most of these youths were working class males who lived where fighting was essential to neighborhood survival. Half the 12,000 members of Liverpool's largest soccer fan club were unemployed and banded together for protection and defense of their turf. For the male, there is a tendency to develop a love of fighting and to see fighting as a central source of gratification and meaning in life. Much of the violence is expressive in nature, intended for onlookers rather than being directed against the victim. The violence becomes a source of identity and fame for the soccer hooligan. Prestige is equated with violence. Leaders affirm their positi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
World Series, Payton Downey, Florida Tallahassee, According Bellow, Texas Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur, Nobel Prize, Victorian England, President Reagan, Firm Pringle, soccer fans, sporting events, fan violence, onto field, los angeles, golf club, violence sports, neff 1985, editor 1985, editor 1985 8-9, mob psychology, los angeles times, killed 38 italian, 38 italian soccer, 1986 january 15,
Approximate Word count = 2974
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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