h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What is it about being a fan?

Being a fan of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy lead me to this site. I was browsing amongst the BBC cult Hitchhikers page when I stumbled across this bizarre web-site (it took me months of anguish to discover very little hitchhiker stuff went on, but I was hooked by then - so what are you to do? ).

But what makes us fans of various things?

I generally go through periods (ooh er missus - I wonder if its more painful because I'm a man ) of enjoying different television programmes. As a child I loved the Transformers and Inspector Gadget cartoon series, and later on Doctor Who (Sylvester McCoy's incarnation).

I didn't get in to football until I was about 13, but then I became obsessed with Everton Football Club and went to a few games - and so when Everton beat Man Utd to win the FA cup I was delighted (partiularly as I'd heard Prince William and Harry were Man Utd fans, and that they had to hand over the trophy ). Sadly I'm still waiting for my second Everton experience of us winning things.

But why I became an Evertonian (my father is a red (Liverpool) - and keep it a secret but there is a picture of me somewhere around of me in a liverpool top as a toddler) I can only guess at. It probably had something to do with having friends who were Evertonians, or maybe I was rebelling.

Perhaps religion (and anti-religion) is similar to being a fan. Everyone has a set of beliefs (whether you have a religion or not) about how you think the universe works, and people "follow" the model which best fits their understanding of the universe.

But something I have discovered is that whatever you are a fan of, there are those who get very angry about details of things. I recently had an interesting debate with Awix (sorry Awix) about Doctor Who, and we had a difference in opinion about a member of cast. We both were concerned that we weren't going to come to an amicable decision of the matter, and so stopped.

But, it occurs to me that the bigger fan you are of something the less likely you are to concede in your belief's.

War is a little like this. If you are in charge of a country you want to look after your own interest. But you also want to have pride in your country. If someone else's interests conflict with your plans, and they are very important to your country, arguements may get out of hand and turn in to fights. When people support (are a fan of) a country, they want to back that side - even if they don't know all the facts.

Occasionally you see evidence of this in at football (soccer) matches (and many other sports) where peoples refusal to let another fan get one over them causes a light hearted argument escalate to full blown crowd violence.

When someone has a different view point to me, I always intend to explain my position reasonably. If that person responds in a pleasant and calm way, this usually works, however I must admit that I do occasionally see red (though less often these days than perhaps in the past) if the person on the other side of the debate is being less than pleasant about my position, and is unable to be open to the posibility of them being wrong.

None of us are perfect. But what is it about being a fan of things that allows us to get wound up about the most rediculous of things?

I will always be a fan of things, and if I believe I am right I believe I have the right to state that position - though I will keep open the possibility that I am wrong. Can I successfully keep this balance of keeping steadfast in my believes, yet allow that I may be wrong? - only time will tell. But more importantly how few people are there out there who are actually trying to keep an open mind?

I sadly suspect very few. Though I may be wrong.

I keep an open mind, though sometimes I have to be reminded to stop it shutting


What is it about being a fan? Or do you mean, why do we become fans? Or perhaps, why do we feel we need to be a fan of something?

If I were to keep evolving that question I am sure I would come across an answer.
I think, but I don't know for sure, that all humans need something they can believe in. Something they can channel there energies into and feel they are achieving something. I am sure it is this 'quality' that led to early man picking up his first tool. He wasn't a fan of making tools obviously, but he did have the passion to find another way of doing things. We have merely evolved from that and so that quality has grown and evolved also.
So here we are, brains full of spare passion and not much left to invent

In short being a fan, to me, is a way of venting left over emotion that has no other home. An emotion that has been with us since the beginning of man and has merely grown with our minds and needs something to do. So someone, long ago, invented sports, religion, competitions etc to occupy that passion. It is the same passion that drove us to discover the wheel, to progress from grunting and drawing little lines to speaking in a more profound manner and applying multiple mathematics. It is in our nature
Why some people ply all their emotion into being a fan is probably a question best suited for a psychiatrist

Thankyou for listening to my humble, unevolved and very messy looking opinion on this matter

Wow. Deep.

Very. But Verc seems to have forgotten that we won the charity shield just three months after the FA Cup thanks to a strike by Vinny "El Hardcase" Samways.

Which probably wasn't really the point of the journal entry, but never mind.

And also since then, Manchester United have gon on to win...oh, I don't think I have enough fingers

oh, piss off. i was merely correcting the "still waiting for Everton to win a second thing" comment.

Ahhhhh, there's nothing better than winding up a scouse


But back on topic, we have just displayed loyalty to our clubs that we are fans of. Perhaps there are some hidden comments amongst our behaviour that could go someway to answering Verc's journal entry

So very, very deep.....

*Realises there is one Leeds fan and two Everton fans here...and him.*

Heh heh heh.

*attends tannoy*



Could the nearest Man Citeh fan please report to verc's journal to join in the counter-creachy brigade. That's any Citeh fan to Verc's journal. Thank you.

*Boo's quietly under his breath*

Bloody Goats

*Waves a Portsmouth flag*

Do you know I think I might just put this in the AWW and see what kind of response it gets.

I think we need some more discussion topics in there

If anyone is interested the entry is here : A2743661

and the conversation is here : F74130?thread=435351