I don't understand the need for ritualistic nationalism before sporting events

[Oeditpus Rex]

A few minutes ago, I turned on the radio to hear the Giants-Brewers game, and the first thing I heard was "...we hai-ai-ai-ailed..."

I turned it off, waited a couple of minutes and turned it on again.

Then it hit me: That song will be sung 15 times today, and that's just at major league ball games. Add the minor leagues and it's another 75 or so. School's out and the Little League season is over, but from March through May or so, it happens thousands of times per day at high school, college and youth league games.

And that's just baseball.

I could understand it if it were only at big events — the World Series, the All-Star Game, the Super Bowl etc. But it's every single game.

I just don't get it.

[NeoTheo]

1. It's so we can feel

like our dick is bigger than anyone else's.

[tularetom]

2. Turn on the (British) Open Championships tomorrow

You won't hear any of that xenophobic crap.

Plus you'll get to see a 53 year old competitor in contention for the championship (Australia's Greg Norman).

[crim son]

3. I think it must be a throwback to soldiers marching and parading

before and after victories at war. These aren't just baseball players, my friend: they're WARRIORS.

[EFerrari]

4. You can't have a national passtime without nationalism?

Americans have a major malfunction with just having fun so they need to dress it up as something else.

[DailyGrind51]

5. A lot of sports fans are just "wannabees" who get some vicarious

feeling of accomplishment when "their" team scores anyway.

[DS1]

6. It's not even a very good song

[ben_meyers]

7. Just wait for the Olympics

Every medal award ceremony will have one of these phony national anthem routines. Who cares about the Latvian National Anthem?

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Latvians? nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. Speaking of which... and slightly off topic....

... but not really: does MLB just skip over the Canadian National Anthem or do they play it during the commercials here and pick up the play-by-play when it's time to hail Ol' Gory?

Seeeriously... there was an all-star game this week. I watched most, not all , of the preliminaries. There's still a MLB franchise in Toronto, no? Toronto's still in Canada, No? Where was "Oh Canada"?

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. I guess that depends on what you're watching or listening to

The national anthem is always heard on Giants radio broadcasts (they even have a sponsor for it — some firefighters' union), and I remember hearing "O Canada" when they were playing in Montreal.

OTOH, the anthem is never heard on Dodgers radio broadcasts — which is kind of strange, since their "flagship," KABC, is a right-wing talk station.

I don't know if MLB has a policy on this, but airing the anthem(s) is apparently up to the individual stations.

[elvisbear]

10. Don't forget military flyovers before sporting events.

Everything's turning into a salute to military might.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. That just pisses me off

What was the cost for the fuel to fly a B-2 bomber over Yankee Stadium for the All-Star Game? And what, exactly, do fly-overs signify?

A ball game isn't a Russian May Day parade.

[conscious evolution]

13. Classic example of indoctrinating the masses

Hitler accomplished the same thing with the Nuremberg rallys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Rally

Here is an excellant paper I just found.Anything sound familar?
http://records.viu.ca/~soules/media205/goebbels.htm

Propagandists must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.


Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.


The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.


Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.


Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign.


To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.


Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.


The purpose, content, and effectiveness of enemy propaganda, the strengths and effects of an exposé, and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.


Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.


Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.


Black rather than white propaganda must be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects. (Black propaganda refers to "material whose source must be concealed from the audience.")


Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.


Propaganda must be carefully timed.


Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.


Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.


Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.


Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.


Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.


Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.