Fanatics

The riots related to the River Plate soccer team's demotion in Argentina are an example of how sport fanaticism devolves into fanaticism, pure and simple. Sports are supposed to make us better human beings; after all, that's what mens sana in corpore sano is all about. But, the truth is that people take sports too seriously, and end up doing all sorts of crazy things when their team loses or even when it wins. We all have to realize that these are just games, something to have fun with, that have nothing to do with real life. In this case, the team's fans couldn't take the fact that, for the first time in 110 years, the team had failed to qualify for the first division or whatever it was. Rather than accepting the fact that it had to happen sometime, they chose to trash the stadium and the neighborhood, battling policemen in the process.

Shame on them!

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