Feeding My Ignorance

It is a question often asked - what is your favourite music; what is your favourite restaurant; what is your favourite book?  The list is if not endless then very long.  I don't know about other people, but for me it is always a question that elicits an answer that is - at best - evasive.  The problem, for me, is that all the topics on which one might be asked "your favourite" are extremely subjective and it is, again for me, nigh on impossible to come up with a definitive answer.

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This has, during the Olympic period, been brought back into focus for me by something else that causes me to think that I might be at odds with the rest of the world.  Athletics, swimming, rowing and other sports where it is one person against others in a "measurable" contest - so who is fastest or can jump highest or furthest even who can lift the heaviest weight - are without doubt sports that are deserving of Olympic status and will generate a clear winner.

Next to them are a number of sports that cover a spectrum of levels of subjectivity from "nearly measurable" right to "a matter of opinion" which I find it much harder to relate to - as sports in the olympics.  Don't get me wrong, many of them leave me marvelling at the skill of the "competitors", but as to - is X better than Y - I have a real problem with that.  It is very much a subjective thing as far as I can see.

One example is "artistic swimming" - yes, it is something that undoubtedly requires a lot of practice, dedication and many skills - but comparing two performances is just not feasible in any objective way - so the judge awards a mark, albeit based on some level of grading the difficulty of the performance - but it is still down to how "well" the athletes have performed.

(as an aside and whilst talking about artistic swimming - it is one of those things that makes me think "who ever thought that this was a good idea for a sport" - it just seems like one of those things that you wouldn't do "by accident" - there must have been a conscious decision by someone to "invent" this sport)

It is not just in sport that I have this issue - music is another sphere where it is (in my view) useless to say that a Beethoven symphony is better or worse than a Mozart symphony - the statement has no meaning.  Two performances of a given piece of music can be - to a certain extent - compared - but only with regard to the precision of the performance - not to the musicality which remains subjective.

Whilst the eurovision song contest can be very entertaining - I hope no one seriously believes that the votes actually go to the 'best' song - except by 'accident'.  The same is true for all other musical competitions - although most probably have a higher degree of impartial judging.

I stress again - in all of these - sport, music, art and many more - I have huge admiration for the skills of those who participate - that is not the question - my issue is with the competitive slant.  Put simply, I do not believe that you can ever 'score' anything this objective in a truly representative way - except by making the scoring system so complicated and obtuse that no one could understand how to win.  Just think if Michelangelo had reached the final of the painting competition and faced off against Picasso - what possible rules could determine the winner?

I have no answers to any of this - just pointing out what I see as the problem.

So to "what is my favourite..." - the answer is impossible in most cases - there are just too many "unmeasurables".  So - if I am asked - my best recourse is, I think, to say that "I thoroughly enjoyed...." and list a number of candidates without actually choosing any one 'winner'