underdog
Is rooting for the underdog a cross-cultural phenomenon?
posted by Jessica @ 10:10 AM
4 zillion
About Me
- Name: Jessica
- Location: small town, California
I'm a mom, a teacher, and a terrible cook. Because I can only read one Pynchon novel a year, I turned to blogging.
Links
- A Brasilian in Atlanta
- Balloon Pirate
- Blurred Clarity
- Coyote Mercury
- Creative Storm Photos
- Guy Wonders
- Gypsy Scholar
- NotsoCranky
- Old Man Rich
- United We Lay
Previous Posts
- someone should slap you
- go team!
- snitch in the endzone
- smart guys
- independence
- 4
- rain, rain
- under the weather
- in the year 2037
- a new year
2 Comments:
"Rooting for the underdog" is a complex reaction in the human model which mixes instinctual responses with intra-psychological phenomena.
The primary reason people can be won over by a heartful showing by the apparently weaker party, is probably because that in primitive times, hunting and warfare were the major community activities.
Both require the emotional rallying of several community members, who in times of peace or at rest may not have gotten along very well. There is something about seeing people facing up to challenges which appear larger than them which naturally causes us to emotionally support them.
At the same time, thanks to the psychological, emotional, and psychic battering the human model has taken by exploitative business and traditionally Conservative cliques throughout history, the average human being has been bullied into a state of relative impotence in areas of life expression.
Life expression, of course, is the ability of a person to act out their natural vibrance and truly succeed as a human being. Having been pushed off the map by parasitic social classes, many people are unable to transcend their wretched humanity, and simply exist by a sheer act of being.
Thus, when such a person sees another, or a group in an apparently weak position, they vicariously put their support behind them, and in this way, find some vent for their life's pressing need to be experienced.
It is interesting to note that, in nations where the exploitation of the average citizen is greatest, allegiances to local sporting teams is greatest.
Of some great interest would be a study of the roots of modern professional sports, and how it is used, alongside religion, as a tool of controling the plebian masses. The lessons learned from the Senators and Colloseum of Rome have simply been slightly modernised, and we continue on as slaves to the Empire.
So, to answer your question, yes, people in general naturally tend to rally behind underdogs. But the greater question is, should this be so? Should we not step out and grasp control of our lives, and thereby overcome our own "underdog" status?
Condensed version: Yeah, cuz most of us feel like underdogs. Why is that?
Yeharr
Post a Comment
<< Home