Rethinking our approach to sports is another good way to chip away at the prevailing culture of gigantism.

At the very least, if we watch college football on TV, we ought to demand that broadcasters abandon their myopic over-focus on that smug hothouse of national championships and future NFL superstars, the Southeast Conference—plus more recently, the ballooned-out Big Ten.  Treating all schools outside these twin behemoths as insignificant is a glaring example of the kind of toxic contemporary gigantism of scale that demeans all but a minuscule few.  We need to be able to see more games featuring the colleges that people in our own region have attended, and thus have some actual connection to.

There’s also no need to stop at football—or at colleges.

For example, if you like baseball and there’s a minor-league club near you, why not check them out?  You might find it a lot more satisfying to be at a game where the players can clearly hear and appreciate your voice cheering for them—and you might be able to meet them before or after the game.

And of course, let’s not forget local high school teams, especially in our original or adopted hometowns.

When we take steps like these, we personally transform our own frame of reference from something so vast it demeans all but a few superstars into something of a more reasonable size, where we’re less likely to feel like tiny, insignificant ants.