The stadium as a church

I went to watch Villa vs Forest on Sunday with my dad and brother. I didn't learn much about the things I set out to research about, however I've learnt a lot more about group psychology and conformity in praxis. This was happening to me too, so the researcher being an outsider is a thing of the past. While we're at the idea of talking about researchers, I also believe that the most genuine research is when it's not funded. (But I need money to live so…)

Herd behaviour.mp3

It's an unspoken trend that it takes one very loud person to chant, and the whole group follows in this chant, and it becomes a hymn, where we're channeling energy of the match. Some might comment that it's a similar feeling to feeling the holy spirit when like minded souls are gathering in the same building. You only need one person to start something, and the group follows. The author is usually whoever has the most social influence, regardless of who started it - think about the people who got overshadowed in canon history. We might not even know or ever find out the people who changed the world, ever existed.

A place where one can be angry without judgment.mp3

I've had a very fulfilling conversation with my dad and brother in the car to and from Nottingham. Even though we didn't have common interests, we shared the same structure - after all, we all live in the same world and geographic place. My dad was saying that there's people who are polite outside the stadium, but say the most graphic of swearwords during the match, and then they revert back to their usual character outside context. 

I think it's a place where people can vent their daily frustrations at players and opponents safely, and is a cathartic experience. If this happens anywhere else, it's considered delinquency. 

Being the spectator vs the observer.mp3

It's a lot more exciting being a spectator, because you're loyal to a team and get to be apart of the spirit of that team (watching BBC parliament is like that too), but it leads to a lot of biased views, hence why I mentioned earlier that genuine research is unfunded, because it's disinterested in helping the funding body and bodies that support a specific finding, even if it is unspoken.