It’s not very well-known that I, Socrates, was a regular first team fly-half for Olympiakos… ancient Athens’ best rugby team. I wasn’t a great fly-half but what a thinker I was! Olympiakos won very few matches in my time but, boy, they never lost an argument. One of my lasting achievements was that I held the Pan-Hellenic record for suspensions in a single season – and I never threw a single punch. I was sent from the field for arguing with the referee on no less than six consecutive occasions accumulating thirty weeks of suspensions.
My most famous dismissal was when I accused a ref of promoting “a system of morality which is based on relative emotional values… a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true”… when he penalized me for being off-side.
My approach to sport is what we miss these days. Listen to the drivel that is served up by commentators of almost any sport. Mindless, simple, cliché-ridden drivel that challenges our grey matter not one iota is what we usually deal with in the sporting media. Sport doesn’t have to be for the stupid. Sport is actually an important and complex concept that deserves to be discussed and analysed with a degree of thoughtfulness. Ageism, sexism, racism, homophobia, sports obsession, health, technology, gambling, power, economics, spirituality, art, ethics, values, personal development, community building and science are all issues and concepts that impact upon sport and on how sport functions within society. Sport is also seriously funny… and fun! Despite the cynicism of the anti-sport lobby sport has an important place in how we live our lives and deserves to be discussed robustly and thoroughly.
So… Sportsocratic is a place for sports lovers to present their ideas, show their research, vent their feelings and carry out analysis of sporting events and issues. Sportsocratic will welcome contributions on almost any sporting or adventure topic so long as the topic is interesting and the ideas are thought through. Sometimes a little bit serious, sometimes a critical issue that a contributor needs to get off their chest, sometimes a little bit silly and sometimes (hopefully) funny, Sportsocratic is the forum and information resource for the thinking sports fan. Subjects can be academically researched or just contain opinionated (well thought out) drivel. So long as it makes entertaining reading… it’s in!
Socrates