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All this social media only confirms what we already should have known, namely, sporting heroes have feet of clay. "Doing Aussie proud". Oh come on. Do we still have to endure this jingoistic BS? Training that hard, for so long, so obsessively (so self-obsessively). It's a sickness, pure and simple. Don't try and kid me that they're doing it for my sake.
People tell me that this obsession with sport is innate, or a way of "controlling our natural aggression" or whatever. (Maybe Mike will have an opinion on that, and I'd be interested to hear from our resident superhero on that subject.) But I wonder if it isn't something instilled into us by society (who am I kidding, I mean by the People With The Big Money), and that a bit of social engineering / manipulation couldn't make us cheer our scientific heroes with just the same level of enthusiasm.
Look what Masterchef has done for cookery. Who would have credited celebrating kitchen wizardry even a few years ago?? I won't give up on the hope that we yet might one day watch MasterBoffin.
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