Students Athletes Influence on Capitalism - Research Paper Example

? Athletes Influence on Capitalism INTRODUCTION athletes are scholars who are admitted to learning institution basing on their sporting prowess. This is contrary to the admission rules of colleges and other higher learning institutions that require one to qualify in order to gain admission to the college. Some of these students are given financial incentives irrespective of their academic ability giving them an upper hand over other students the root cause of capitalism in our learning institutions. This eventually links them to the mainstream culture which is over-commercialized and has robot like properties. The subculture way of life is true to its original setup and has more freedom in undertaking any activity. The Theory of subculture tries to define subculture as a way that proposes that those living in the urban settings are able to find ways of creating a sense of belonging to the community despite the prevailing alienation and anonymity. The acquisition of status within the subculture entitled that one had to be exclude from the rest of the society and the group responded to it by showing hostile reception to other outsiders. The subculture became so substantive, distinctive and showed independence. The members solely depended on others for social contact and validation of their beliefs and way of life thus in the process have tried to eliminate the issue of disparities in the social status. The culture of capitalism is involved in the shaping up of societal behavior. This later gives people the right to identify themselves with a certain faction of people (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars 200). This is deep rooted because of the values attached to money tend to dictate the association of people in the society. To ascertain their incorporation in society they have involvement the media and commerce related activities. METHOD The subcultures have a defined way of doing things with a certain affiliation to a particular group creating lots of social division and conflicts especially to the youth and teenagers. Identified with specific and peculiar ways of life, most of the students identify themselves with the subculture groups of their choice. This is a close way of creating a bonding between the affiliates of that subculture. Whilst the subculture discourages individualism the main stream culture continue to fan this ethical animosity. The mainstream culture is about trying to achieve the status quo and control of power in the society. It leads to people being engraved in doing things that will satisfy their ego. A pattern of doing something is dictated by the a certain group and if you want to be associated with the group following what it does is bound to underline the status quo and bring out a sense of identity to the individual. When the person does not conform to the cultures of the mainstream is considered as an outcast and a sell out. The involvement of a person in the mainstream culture needs one to be repacked that he or she fits in the status quo. SUBCULTURE The indicators of subculture are identity, commitment, autonomy and consistent distinctiveness. The influence of student athletes has led to the formation of subcultures in the schools and colleges. Just like the players formed subcultures among themselves because some of them receive full scholarships but do not perform according to expectations of the team. Those that have no scholarships in the process gang up against those the student athletes citing their little contribution to the team while the student athletes seclude them as they feel they are superior. This in the end will have a detrimental effect on the overall performance of teams. In addition there is contrast of opinions regarding the payment of the student athletes with less regard to the regular students. To cap their outstanding performance they receive many other benefits that other regular students can not be accessed of. The college sport departments fan this wide gap between the regular students and the student athletes by giving them special treatment in accessing the training facilities, the type of clothing they wear, and by signing promotional deals that bring revenue to the colleges hence becoming in disposable assets of the college. This leads to formation of groupings that see these as an academic and societal injustice (Muggleton 80). The subcultures decision to affiliate and direct their focus on particular activities in a culturally different and distinct structure. Their choice of remaining in a certain cultural enclave makes them to be easily identified with a particular way of doing things. With the rise of social grouping subcultures have either popularized the groupings or retarded its growth. The formation of racing teams, musical bands, sports groups, criminal gangs have all been made popular with the formation of the subculture groups. This has led to an escalation of violence and surge in crime as the groups tend to stamp their authority in their areas of operation. Every cultural significant activity has the margins unto which it describes its limits of operation because all the subcultures depart from the mainstream culture. This is because of the difference in tastes and preferences of the social groups. As many cultural scholars have noted the originators of cool trends are always the outsiders and in the end it is adopted by the mainstream culture that make up the majority population in any societal set up. Members of these groups want to hold cultural tastes that are giving distinct satisfaction signaling their identity in the society as the first ones to do a certain thing. This is a premonition that is mainly associated with the teenage youth (Dodge and Prinstein 190-192). The Chicago school of thought is most famous for a conception of subcultures as deviant groups whose emergence with the perception that had to do with the interaction of people and how other people view of them. This phenomenon is perhaps best summarized in Albert Cohen’s theoretical introduction to a study of ‘Delinquent Boys’ (1955). According to Cohen the composition of subcultures consisted of individuals who collectively resolved societal status problems by developing new values which rendered status-worthy the characteristics they shared. Acquisition of status within the subculture entails being labeled and hence many were not are not included with the rest of society something the group would respond to through its hostile reception to others who are not associated with the group extending to the point that non-conformity with the dominant norms often became virtuous. As the society is about interaction of people, the subculture becomes more substantive, distinctive and independent, and members would become increasingly dependent on each other for social contact and validation of their beliefs and way of life so that they watch each others back. The essence of the study on subcultures was carried out by Chicago school on gangs and developed through the symbolic interactions in school into a set of theories arguing that certain subculture groups have values and attitudes that are appealing to crime and violence. These groupings had distinct styles of clothing, punks and bikes. CULTURE OF CAPITALISM The relationship of the student subculture that was against giving of financial incentives to student athletes because they were more associated with individualism was not healthy from the moral and ethical point of view. Through sports, the mainstream culture practicing individuals have assimilated the values of the dominant society and went ahead to try and incorporate these values in their behavior. Just like the in the United States Americanization of the people involved having individualism, freedom to express your opinions without restrictions, dressing casually and in a fashionable way, having a youthful appearance, patriotism, and being associated with the predominant thinking and behavior something that was prevalent with student athletes. These leads to the perpetuation for the formation of a hierarchical society as it encourages people to maintain survival in certain spheres of life of tradition, beliefs, and practices (Lum 137). With various colleges advocating for an improved performance in both academic and non academic issues learning institutions have gone ahead to incorporate the student athletes in their programs so that they post exemplary results in both academic and non-academic spheres. This shows how individualism and quest for recognition in the society is deep rooted in the academic front at the expense of financial muscle of the colleges. This promotes capitalism in the society as only institutions that have greater financial pools had command in posting good results in the sporting field. The paying of student athletes for their services is both an appreciation and a vice at the same time. This is because they consider themselves as unique in their character hence promoting mainstream culture in the society. The relationship with the colleges and the students is improved while hurting the real people they associate with because of their imperialistic behavior. This gap in societal disparity leads to formation of gangs that are either in their support or they are against their ideas (Young 101). Many perpetrators of capitalism are only engrossed in satisfying their own ego and desires irrespective of the harm they cause to the society when striving to achieve those desires. Money is a good servant and a bad master at the same time depending on how it is utilized. Too much money corrupts the human mind at all times. Student athletes tend to be classified as people who wield power to control certain essential societal norms like the favorite teams to support, the type of latest music the is to be heard and the type of clothing to wear. This is a type of lifestyle that many type of people like being associated with bringing forth the differences between counter stream cultures and the mainstream cultures because mainstream cultures measure the quality of life exclusively in terms of an ever increasing material standard of living. This leads to a spendthrift and destructive legacy of consumption in the mainstream cultures (Bastic 69-72). The unequal social positions that are created by the athletics scholarships of student athletes are paramount in establishing the disparities in schools and sports organizations. If the divisive policies are implemented so that a more diverse range of opportunities for the marginalized students. There is need to expand the athletic and academic repertoires so that the all students who are considered less fortunate so their futures are secured (Jannelle, Darnell and Lakamura 284). Though the student athletes are an asset to the schools and colleges they encourage selfishness and individualism in the society. This is because not all persons are endowed with the sporting talents that they posses. This resulted because the sports departments started offering cash incentives to the athletes other than what the scholarships stipulated. This is further aggravated when they use different training facilities different with what the other students use. The capitalistic nature makes them to be associated with the mainstream culture which is a predominant virtue of capitalists. College sport is characterized by competing for respect, beating rival opponents along the way with little or no professionalism involved. Also the high profile athletes are characterized by seeing the regular students wearing their replica jerseys in awe of their performance. This creates a sense of support for the teams. IDENTITY Some of the evidences related to the subculture formations are that most students are not of the opinion that by showing an affiliation to certain group of students that are mostly influenced by the student athletes. The subjective perceptions of the subculture group are associated with the positive sentiments made about change as evidenced by the contemporaries of their ephemerality and superficiality. The subcultures with their dominance spread out, their identities are fluid, mobile and always on the move to stamp out their dominance (Muggleton 101). Only human beings can regulate, define, and control the behavior of other human beings basing their approach on their cultural summary. Most of the issues that are undertaken by the humans are greatly influenced by the way they use their culture. This has made the subculture to be explicit and become a vital action system in the society. This in turn has made the students to determine and be aware of their subculture variation thus experiencing subculture relativism (Gelder 74). The subculture is identified as an explicit lifestyle by many people. They have embraced the variant forms of lifestyles that exist in the social world. They have gone ahead to restructure their own behavior, the way the decisions are made in a collective manner and making future plans on the basis of their conception of these explicitly subculture entities. This is evidenced with the way students voiced their opinions concerning how the student athletes were being given special treatment by the colleges. This led regular students forming splinter groups in the college in addition to the infighting between those students that were being provided with scholarships and the regular students playing in the same team (Gelder 74). The ways in which the student subculture that was against the paying of the student athletes asserted their authority by encouraging the regular students in the same team with the student athletes to revolt against them and criticized their contribution to the team. This subculture has attitudes and values that are appealing to violence and other social vices that erode the good social fabric that is associated by students. CONCLUSION In summary the student athletes have a greater influence on the way capitalism is depicted in the learning institution. The formation of student subcultures in the colleges tends to align themselves with certain practices in the schools. Some of them are not of the idea that the student athletes be given financial incentives because it gives them an upper hand compared to other students. On the ethical and moral point of view, the promotion of capitalism should be discouraged in schools because it later spills over to the contemporary society. The mainstream culture in which the majority of the student athletes fall should be streamlined in order to avoid other people being subjects of those that have power and money in the society. Though their unique character is appreciated by the colleges, there should be laws enacted to govern on recruitment and admission criteria of the students. Also the law should stipulate on how the revenue generated by these students should be used Works Cited Bastic, Majda. "Consumer Impact on the Environment." Stuhler, Elmar and Marjan Vezjak. Sustainable Development:The Role of the Universities. Munchen and Mering: Rainer Hampp Verlag, 2000. 69-72. Dodge, Kenneth A and Mitchell J Prinstein. Understanding Peer Influence in Children and Adoloscents. North Carolina : Guildford Press, 2008. Gelder, Ken. The Subcultures Reader. Madison Avenue,New York: Routledge, 2005. Hampden-Turner, Charles and Alfons Trompenaars. Seven Cultures of Capitalism. Michigan: University of Michigan, 1993. Jannelle, Joseph, Simon Darnell and Yuka Lakamura. Race and Sport in Canada: Intersecting Inequalities. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2012. Lum, Domain. Culturally Competent Practise: A Framework for Understanding Diverse Groups. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2010. Muggleton, David. Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style. Chichester: Berg, 2002. Young, M J. "The Five Faces of Oppression." Cudd, A and R Andreasen. Feminist Theory:A Philosophical Anthology. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 91-104. Read More