Idag gläds miljoner svenskar över målet mot Paraguay. Jag måste erkänna att jag tillhör en av dem. Men varför är det så roligt med fotboll? Thomas A Bowden förklarar i sin artikel, ”The Joy of Football” (som visserligen talar om amerikansk fotboll, men det förändrar det inte principen):

Football fans who cannot articulate why they feel such passion for the game may retreat to their television sets feeling a vague sense of guilt that, perhaps, they are wasting their time.

However, no guilt is called for, because watching sports satisfies a vital human need.

The essential value of spectator sports lies in their capacity to illustrate, in a dramatic way, the process of human goal-achievement. They do this by making the process shorter, simpler, and more visually exciting than it is in daily life–and by giving us heroes to admire.

A process of goal-achievement underlies everything that makes our lives richer, from discovering new medicines to learning about computers, from pursuing a career to enjoying friends and family. But success is not automatic–each such endeavor must be started and maintained, often in the face of great obstacles, by an individual’s choices. To gather the moral courage to make their own difficult choices each day, people need inspiration–the spiritual fuel that flows from the sight of another’s achievement.

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