Big sporting events and spectacles might give the national morale a shot in the arm, but they are too transient and taste-specific to stand as robust symbols of nationhood.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Sport can bring communities together and can release a lot of pent-up emotions.
The 2012 Olympics is a fantastic incentive for everyone to help leave a sporting legacy and show that Britain is truly a great sporting nation.
I think sports are meant to unite people.
The world is filled with great sporting events.
Global sports tournaments have a range of benefits that go far beyond the games themselves. They can transform the image of a country or a region. They bring people together and reveal new possibilities to a nation's youth.
Sports movies are often very good at dramatizing the intersection of public and private realms: the body politic.
On television, I have watched countless athletes from different countries, sports and Olympics stand proudly at the top of the podium and shed tears. They symbolized the Olympics for me because Olympic medals represent all of the hard work and sacrifices made by the athletes as well as the people who helped them reach the top of their sports.
The symbolic significance of individual athletes' achievements has sometimes proved more productive than the negotiations of diplomats or politicians.
In response to the challenge of strangers, sport arose as a sublimated representation of a community's armed might as well as its pride of place and clan.
Sporting achievements bestow a sense of unification on the cultures and societies in which they take place and create an outpouring of nationalism and pride.