[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Vera, Pedro L.]

On Thu, 2009-01-08 at 12:31 -0700, jkirk wrote:

> Hmmm---however, Enneatype 3 doesn't deal with the other mass
> Amurrikan phenomenon, the TV-beerslugging couch potato.

And Richard replied:

>The couch potato is usually foaming at the mouth in wild anticipation of
>his favorite sports team WINNING. The adoration of victors (and the
>correlative contempt of losers) is the mark of a Three and of almost all
>American males (except for those who subscribe to buddha-l---we
>carefully screen all sport fans out).

Richard, I think this phenomenon hardly is limited to American males. In fact, there is plenty of "soccermania" in Europe (does it feed off males with limited opportunities? maybe). While I agree that the attitude seems prevalent in males and probably originates in evolutionary processes, we can trace fascination with sports to the Greeks and certainly bloody sporting events were perfected by the Romans and they could not even play ice hockey!!


> And when I note that my university
>pays the football coach every year more than he pays the entire
>thirteen-faculty-member philosophy department so that our university can
>WIN at football (as if anyone gives a rat's tail who wins a bloody
>football game), I think it's possible that our education system is
>mostly a factory for cranking out success-addicted Threes.

The enneagram stuff I don't know about (and I havent kept up with the thread) but for a long time I've advocated turning college football teams into professional teams and dropping the pretense that the students are in school for an education. That would seem to work best for all（including the alumni who contribute heavily to the sports programs primarily, and to the schools, secondarily, based on the winning seasons of the teams).

Best regards,

Pedro