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SPORTS_LOGIC

                                   June 24, 2004

One of the things that I learned from
going to Stanford Volley Ball games was         Volleyball is a huge
that the fans didn't regard cheering for        sport at Stanford.
their team as anything as simple as a           A game might have
spontaneous display of emotion.  They           thousands of spectators
regarded it as a requirement: it was            crowding from the lower
their duty to inspire the home team,            tiers up to the ceiling:
and psyche out the opposition.                  solid walls of humanity.

When the drums of war       There was this one              In comparison, if
are pounding, and           men's volleyball                you got Fred
public opinion polls        game that had to be             Frith to play on
repeatedly report huge      played in the "Old              campus you'd be
approval ratings for        Pavillion", which               lucky to get a few
our boy in office and       was so small that               hundred people.
his wounderful              the bleachers
military undertakings,      practically went
the left has a way of       right up to the court.
responding with
anguished, outraged               Some of the Stanford
disbelief.  When they             guys seated near me were
speak up on the                   using this as an
subject, they hear                opportunity to whisper
things like "Support              in the ear of the server
our troops!"                      from the opposite
                                  team: "*Waaayne*, we're
   If you find this               *looooking* at you... is
   remark baffling,               your ass getting hot?"
   consider the Stanford
   volleyball fans.

Also, you should realize that
this attitude is not, in fact,
the stupidiest thing in the
world.

What war is really about is pushing
the other side into a situation where
they feel like they need to surrender.
They're quite capable of watching
reports of demonstrations on CNN and
reading poll results in the New York
Times.

If they get the feeling that
the US citizens don't back the
war effort, they might actually
hang on and fight it out longer
in hopes that we'll back down.

So going around talking loudly about
how great the war is might *really*
help support the troops.                   This attitude does indeed pose
                                           some problems for the nature of
   But this means that the                 political discourse in an open,
   "rally round the flag                   democratic society...
   effect", is not not at
   all reliable.

      The people are lying to the
      pollsters, who are essentially
      regarded as enemy spies.            SPORT_OF_PREDICTION

      ETERNAL_CONFLICT


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