How Sports Unite
On the power games
Sports bring us together.
When the game is on, people who have never met before sing songs as they embrace. Rivals come together on the field. And even in their competition, they find mutual respect.
Something about playing together suspends division. Even if it is just for a while.
What does this reveal?
During the World Cup, whole nations pause to watch.
The event may be nation-based. But this tribalism is transcended by the shared experience of it. If your own country is knocked out of the tournament, you may have been so charmed by another that you root for it instead.
The unifying quality of games is real.
Sports are socially acceptable play for adults.
As kids bond through games, so do we. They create what is described as a magic circle: a reality in which every participant is involved in the ruleset, the stakes, and the outcome. Everyone has a role.
Inside the circle, everyday differences are abandoned.
The shared identity that remains is merely: player.
Identities that may normally divide those involved are suspended: for now. Even bitter foes will have to cooperate if they are to win. And even the competitive aspect of games takes place within a frame of cooperation: everyone agrees to adhere to the rules and do their best.
Sports, quite strangely, turn competitive drive into a source of unity.
Several mechanisms define it.
As everyone voluntarily agrees to play the game, they grow naturally involved. It is like an equal playing field where the status contest of daily life is set aside. Those involved are temporarily judged only on skill, effort, and teamwork.
Failure may be consequential within the game, but it is unimportant outside of it.
The stakes are simulated. Participants do their best to win, but if they do not, no real consequences materialize. They can give it all they have, but they stand to lose nothing.
It is reminiscent of the knightly tournaments of the Middle Ages. The aggression was present, but it remained civilized because of how it was channeled.
They gamified their desire to win, fostering social unity in the process.
Sports have a vital function.
They channel competitive drive into something that unifies more than it divides. During a game, the game is all that matters. Other differences (political, religious, or otherwise) can be forgotten, at least for an hour or two.
It transcends divisions.
Across the chasms of modern society, the magic circle unites us.
Sometimes, the connection humans crave is stronger than the big questions that keep them apart. When we play, we create a magical space in which, just for a moment, we can all participate. Life may never be perfect, but a game can get pretty close.
Humans, so long as they agree to work together, thrive, even if it is all over when the whistle blows.