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"Sport in the sense of a mass-spectacle, with death to add to the underlying excitement, comes into existence when a population has been drilled and regimented and depressed to such an extent that it needs at least a vicarious participation in difficult feats of strength or skill or heroism in order to sustain its waning life-sense."
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Source: Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford, Ch. 6, (sct. 11), 1934.
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