… reigns not merely in Buenos Aires (Argentine sports atrocities happen to be tonight’s global-media focus), but in empty soccer stadia everywhere. Fans, players, owners — so many now behave so violently that more and more games are played in Total Spectator Silence, today’s spectators being simply too dangerous to allow into the arena, or onto the streets near the arena. Games are postponed while authorities wait for everyone to stop beating and knifing everyone. When no one stops, games are cancelled.
Not enough that international soccer as an institution is fully, foully, hopelessly corrupt; to this sickening, all-the-way-down financial obscenity we must add disgusting endemic violence.
And… so…
On with the game! It’s a man’s world, babe, and if you think for one minute that injury rape and riot will stop international soccer (or American football, or American fraternities), you’re nuts. Meet the man of the hour, the face of the game, everyone’s soccer hero. Stand back! Everybody dies.
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And in other Argentine soccer news…
November 25th, 2018 at 1:59AM
My wife often mentions Emile Durkheim’s idea of “anomie,” which is senseless behavior indicative of a breakdown of social aspirations. What’s being described on this here blog regarding the imbecility on college campuses, as well as the hyper violence witnessed at soccer matches, is confirmation of Durkheim’s work….
November 25th, 2018 at 6:37AM
Charlie: She’s right – Durkheim’s anomie I think is one of a number of ways to understand what we’re seeing more and more of. In this particular case, Argentina, a reading of V S Naipaul and Nathanael West would also be useful.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:52AM
UD, yes, Day of The Locust! So very true. Having grandmothers who went to vaudeville shows, they told us Hollywood destroyed that business, and the skilled performers who made a decent living suddenly became redundant. Vaudeville was diverse and each city had its own troupe, it couldn’t be monopolized. Movies, instead, eliminated that diversity, and created a homogenized, bizarre fantasy world. West did a remarkable job of connecting the destruction of working people’s value, including that of live performance, caused by The Depression, with Hollywood’s depiction of a nonexistent way of life. Day of The Locust chronicles what happens when chimeras become apparent. Not any different than what’s occurring with big time college sports…