"Thou Shalt be judeged"

 

 

Mark Probest in the article "Thou shalt be judged" explains how subcultures in our society provide a sense of direction and inspiration for many young people and therefore play an important role in the development of their identities. On the other hand, certain characteristics are often associated with subcultures.  The label identifying an individual with a subculture often carries a number of preconceived notions about that person.  These prejudicial judgments are often wrong and do not take into account the complexities in the personality and thinking of the person.  While there is some bonding or common ground among people identified with a subculture, the labeling oversimplifies an individual’s personality and is prejudicial.  In the twentieth century we made significant progress in discarding prejudices that were detrimental to our society but much work remains to be done to free ourselves from unjustifiable preconceived notions about many subcultures.

Author Barash looks at the event of the sports fandom from different perspectives in his article "The Roar of the Crowd" from theoretical, psychological, anthropological,...and sees this phenomenon as a central issue and problematic human behavior. It seams he is confused about human being's fascination with watching other people doing sports.  he believes people who are sports' fan, are looking for their identification through watching sports as he says: "we get identification from our sports frenzy, the experience of seeing ourselves in the exploit of another". he uses the phrase "nationalists" to describe the sports fans.

Respond to the Summaries:

Looking back to my self, I just like to watch Golf! Yes, just because I like to follow the little white sphere and seeing the ball falling into its hole makes me happy and excited. I do not care who is playing I just like the ball. I totally understand why Barash is confused, he is lost by some social aspect of the sports fandom, which is sometimes destructive for human society.  but his statement is not always true. Putting two articles above together, I think sports fandom and subculture are related.  Fans wants to show their support to the sport teams and want to know themselves as their members, in subcultures followers doing the same thing. They both look for their identity through their participation and supports of their favorite group.