RE: 12 Years of Schooling and All I Got Was This Murderous, War-like Attitude
I don't understand how you do things over there XD
Then again we haven't done the school sports thing (or school for that matter). We do club sports; when the boys were playing footy the teams shook hands after the game (and I think even said "good game" or something similar after) and any kids or parents who misbehaved during the games (being bad sports, abusing officials etc) could be suspended/banned from attending games. At our gymnastics club well of course we're allowed to still be friends with and talk to people in other clubs honestly XD (genuine question that was asked my a kid who had transferred clubs and saw some old friends from previous clubs at a comp).
Some people do get carried away with the professional sports teams though. It's hilarious only because as far as I know it doesn't get past friendly ribbing over here.
It would be a matter of reverse-engineering a machine that produces soldiers and war; the parts and pieces of that machine would be what I grew up in here, where war is programmed into the culture itself. We're taught to support our school's ball games like we would support our warriors in a battle. Cultural conditioning, I think it is, but that's just what I can surmise from my perspective, living here in the middle of this machine. Around here, the rivalries reach into larger regions after high-school, where distant colleges compete. With repetitious chants and marching tunes to elevate the mood, people get upset and become involved, but they also are being conditioned to create a mindset of unnecessary opposition and conflict. Because I live in a culture that seems to accept the idea of constant wars and standing armies as being normal and sane, I'm always trying to figure out how things stay like they are here, year after year.