Reply #48: Have you ever wondered why sports fans riot?

[fasttense]

I mean seriously, what do they have to gain by rioting? Or maybe it is not really about the sporting event. Maybe it's about our society where we encourage obsessive loyalty to a sports team because we have nothing else to offer people. Maybe it's because the people involved have so little in their lives that a loss of a game can seem to be devastating. It reminds me a little of how the Romans use to control the unwashed masses with games and bread.

A society that puts so much emphasis on games that fans of the losing team, and even sometimes of the winning team, violently erupt. It's a fairly recent phenomenon. But one worth noting. Perhaps there is another underlying cause besides the loss of a game.