Can the Olympics Render Our Tribal Impulses Harmless? | Sebastian Junger

The Olympics provide a place to celebrate national identity on an unparalleled scale, and rather than compete against each other maliciously, the games are an opportunity to showcase the beauty and nobility of competition. Junger's latest book is "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging" ().
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Transcript - Sports are an interesting way for people who experience a collective identity. Sports teams in this country have their own sort of tribal impulses against each other. But then, you know, drop a few bombs on Pearl Harbor and then all of a sudden we’re one country facing an enemy. And people just naturally cohere into groups. And when you create a group just by necessity you’re also creating a whole bunch of people who aren’t in your group. And just mathematically know – that’s just a mathematical truth. And one of the interesting things about the Olympics is that it’s a chance for nations to demonstrate their nationness, to demonstrate the fact that they actually see themselves as a nation which is a beautiful thing. I mean that’s what we have organized ourselves into nations. That’s the modern world and when you see that on display it can be really moving. But it also because hopefully we’re sort of bigger than ourselves it also allows nations to entertain some kind of communalism between each other that’s sort of channeled through the ability of competition. Read Full Transcript Here: .