Perceptions
Sports entertainment has a stigma of being mindless pop culture, in some cases glorifying violence for the sake of entertainment, and has been criticized as such in popular media, often through lampooning: the film Idiocracy portrays a future where sports entertainment permeates the global culture: the president is an active champion professional wrestler and capital punishment consists of a combination demolition derby, monster truck event and gladiator duel, and is a highly popular television broadcast. Fiction with a dystopian future setting often portrays deadly futuristic games as popular sports entertainment, including the movie The Running Man, video games such as Smash TV and the Twisted Metal series, and the role-playing game Shadowrun, which features Urban Brawl and Combat Biking
Many notable names in the United States openly admit enjoying certain forms of sports entertainment while many others have taken part in it or made paid contributions. Professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal has a reputation as a long time pro wrestling fan and attends WWE events several times per year, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. expressed interest in fulfilling a WWE career after he retires from professional boxing. Chicago Bears American football player Brian Urlacher, who admits to being a pro wrestling fan, made an attempt to leave football to wrestle for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling full time until the Chicago Bears forced him to stop.
The widespread popularity in the United States for the main form of sports entertainment, professional wrestling, has caused politicians to use it to reach voters, particularly young males. President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain recorded video messages for broadcast on the WWE to encourage the audience of WWE Raw to vote, and George W. Bush did a prerecorded video for the WWE's annual Tribute to the Troops show.
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Famous quotes containing the word perceptions:
“The liberals have not softened their view of actuality to make themselves live closer to the dream, but instead sharpen their perceptions and fight to make the dream actuality or give up the battle in despair.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the life of an oyster. Suppose it to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger. Consider it in that situation. Do you conceive any thing but merely that perception? Have you any notion of self or substance? If not, the addition of other perceptions can never give you that notion.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)