Why can a soccer match make billions of people tense when almost nothing in their daily lives depends on the result? Martina Moneke argues that sport is one of civilization’s greatest inventions: a symbolic form of conflict that creates genuine consequence without catastrophe. 2026 FIFA World Cup - Belgium v. Egypt in Seattle -- SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Martina Moneke I was tense. Not mildly interested. Not casually curious. Genuinely tense. As the