Games without fun

UNESCO Courier, May, 1991 by Jean d'Ormesson

Sport is born of play, in its infinite variety. It satisfies the body's urge to surpass others, and itself. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who revived the Olympic Games of ancient Greece, defined it as going faster, further, higher and harder. It is human to want to transcend others (and one-self) but in accordance with arbitrary rules. Thus sport is a form of play, and also a peaceful imitation of war, and a set of moral standards into the bargain.

Money invades sport

What is now happening is that under the threefold influence of money, technology and advertising, sport is being taken over by increasingly harsh and exclusive competition. Technology is becoming more and more important in what was once a matter of emulation between amateurs. Money invaded sport in a big way some years ago. Television, whilst helping to propagate and popularize sport, also serves to arouse passions and turn games into shows. The chauvinism involved in some football matches and tennis tournaments, plus the atmosphere of violence surrounding some sporting occasions, means that sport is no longer a game but a feverish ultramodern industry-and an industry dominated by ruthless competition often involving huge financial interests. When Baron de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games, he naturally put the stress on emulation, but he emphasized that what matters is not winning but taking part-thus keeping them as games. Nowadays this aspect is fast disappearing under the impact of big money, the influence of advertising and the ruthless use of high technology to defeat one's opponent.

Following the American historian and sociologist E. Weber, who has carried out research into traditional forms of play, Pierre Parlebas has pointed out that with the advent of modern sport traditional games have gradually disappeared. To put it another way, the higher the stakes the less important the game. The spontaneous and joyful effervescence that Caillois called paidia is losing ground to ludus, a system of arbitrary albeit constricting rules. Competition, which in games consisted excelling oneself, now consists of setting records and beating a rival who is often ridiculed and even hated. The high stakes in modern sport banish the fraternal and disinterested delight in the game.

Sport is a fundamental activity in the modern world, casting its spell over its many participants and spectators. We must not allow it to be swamped by money, debased by violence, or cause hostility between nations, regions, cities and clubs. It must remain exhilarating, pure, young and dignified. It must become play once more.

UNESCO has done much, particularly in the context of the World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1998), to propagate and preserve traditional games. With active help from the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport and the International Fund for the Development of Physical Education and Sport (see page 38), it has also turned its attention to the problems of sport that receives a very high degree of media coverage and faces the threat of violence. UNESCO has, for instance, stressed the notion of fair play, the spirit of generosity and impartiality in games played for their own sake rather than to win. Instead of violence, the appeal of financial gain at all costs, and dehumanized technology, this means going back to the idea of pleasure which is disappearing in the harsh world of high technology, and to an ethic in which an opponent is a human being to be respected rather than an obstacle to be flattened. Sport must continue to combine enthusiasm and regulation, exhilaration and effort, pleasure and moral standards. It must remain a game in which emulation is essentially a mark of harmony and complicity.