I hear that there's some sort of sporting event taking place tonight. I can't be bothered watching, even if I weren't working, I'd probably take a pass heh heh. Besides the whole Debordian spectacle that is off-putting to me, I have come to revile the whole American football system, with its multiple incidents of heinous sexual misconduct and culture of violent misogyny. Even the fact that the advertisements have eclipsed the main event is repugnant- do I really want to be manipulated for commercial purposes?
I can understand that people want to be entertained, to hang out with friends drinking beer and eating junk food. Hey, I like to do that myself. I just don't want to be involved in this particular orgy of mass consumption, of mass consumerism. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather watch a superb owl, but I'm nerdy that way.
To me, the weirder thing this year is team boosterism as a form of political leaning. I didn't watch the game, but crocheted my several-weeks' project of a queen-bed size afghan while watching Murdoch Mysteries on HBO Prime while dragging through my Twitter feed. I don't think there is anything so debased, that adding mostly unrelated political framing to it can't make it worse. Beer, junk food, and communal tv watching is standard culture. Sports can be sublimated violence, but it's within accepted culture. Our next apparent bent re: sportball might be "POLITICIZE ALL THE THINGS!"
ReplyDeleteI am political, but for that, I am not down.
Hmm. I'm disappointed in this post. It's so self-consciously pretentious, and I have come to believe you're better than that. A LOT better than that. It's the guy who sneers "I don't watch teevee" when the topic turns to a popular show.
ReplyDeleteNot interested in sports? That's cool - a lot of people aren't. But it doesn't make you cooler, smarter, more progressive or generally better than somebody who is. I happen to very much like to watch the games, and yesterday's was particularly compelling, with a good vs. evil storyline and an epic comeback.
I'm not sure why thought your disdain for the game was important in any way, but I don't think it's an effective measure of any kind of quality or values...
Sports can be sublimated violence, but it's within accepted culture.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem here is the lack of sublimation.
Not interested in sports? That's cool - a lot of people aren't. But it doesn't make you cooler, smarter, more progressive or generally better than somebody who is. I happen to very much like to watch the games, and yesterday's was particularly compelling, with a good vs. evil storyline and an epic comeback.
I'm not interested in professional sports, largely due to the toxicity which surrounds the whole endeavor. I'm a big fan of amateur sports on the local level. I just don't care to give money to an industry which funnels taxpayer dollars to billionaires and protects violent, misogynistic sociopaths. I'll watch a bunch of ladies playing camogie in Van Cortlandt Park any day.