I gather here tonight in my efforts to get people thinking in intelligent ways again, as was the purpose of this blog; unfortunatly, though, the people who do read this blog, or at least the ones who take their time to participate in my blog and post, are not the people I am worried about, they are what I'd want other people to be like - so first of all whoever posts I thank you for participating in my blog and being a part of my life, and furthermore giving me a tiny shred of hope that people can be open minded and intelligent.
Now to the point; I have another thought sparker, or so I hope. I want to satisfy, or at least consider in an intelligent manner in a place where my argument and thought can be criticized by knowledgable friends, something that has been bugging me for a while. This problem is that of the New Orleans Saints and their sucess story last season being a huge inspiration for all faithful New Orleans inhabitants - Warner you'll probably be able to help with the political and economic issues because I don't know that much about that and my mindset is not often in consideration of those things, I'll just look at humanity and morality. My first reaction to the whole thing was that it's bullshit, but I didn't really have a reason, I just didn't like it. Now that football is rolling around the thought came to my mind again and a few reasons for believing that it's still crap came to me. The main thing is simply the concept of football "inspiring" life; how can something so contrived inspire people to live one - they were essentially facing life vs. death in that they could 'keep going' and rebuild, or not rebuild and starve and freeze to death, this is something that life itself inspires us to stay away from, we don't need to see that some people who once sucked at playing a game got really good so that we should keep living, our bodies tell us that, they may not have understood this themselves because they were caught up in being told that it's inspirational instead of thinking for themselves (an ongoing theme in my posts?) , but they just needed to get over themselves. My other tought was less human, and more for people who argue on a much less intelligent level, but seems none-the-less valid to bring up; all of those people who spent a gross of who knows how many millions on tickets and the city (or state?) spending however much on rebuilding the Superdome collectively could've rebuilt thousands of homes and donated millions to animal rescue and hospital charoties in order to actually help the city of New Orleans on its feet again, instead of spending it on something that was said to be "inspirational" to the citizens, who we've already established could only need inspiration towards one thing, which is to keep living, and that inspiration is an inherent quality of life - and, I hope I wouldn't hear such an argument, if someone was to say that it was for distraction from all that has happened, all that has happened could've been largely mended by all of the money wasted in the football team, if our government had any sense it would've banned the team from the city until it was sufficiently rebuilt to the point where it had hundreds of millions of dollars to waste on an entertainment sports stadium. I mean who could've had that much of a stake in the Saints before the 2006-07 season?
8 comments:
hmmm. a tough one. i agree that the money seems better spent on the necessities (homes) and humanitarian causes (animal rescue) you mention. but i wonder if you are underestimating the way in which simple human interactions and excitement, say around organized sport, can help to cultivate a larger sense of well being in a community. by having something positive, and in no way related to the devastation of the storm and botched handling of its after effects, people can recharge their batteries. i think of the yankees game after 9/11. This cannot substitute for other more obviously substantive efforts but i believe as part of a larger picture, the rallying around a sporting event can help unify and potentially motivate individuals beyond the sport. The following is a quote from an msnbc sports columnist about ny baseball after september 11th: “This was just sports. We could take the good from it, revel in the triumphs, forget any disappointment at our convenience. There were no real ramifications. It is why sports can bring us such comfort, when real life brings us such great pain. It is why they resumed the games in New York, after the planes hit.”
on a different note: japper, have you checked out the "what is enlightment" essay i mentioned by foucault and the original one by kant? as i revisited kant's today, i am reminded of your current beliefs, dispair(?) around what kant calls immaturity, basically following the teachings of others rather than thinking for one self. kant mentions that a majority of peope seem to choose "self-incurred immaturity". he wrote this article in 1784. if that was an accurate obserbvation then and if that same observation holds true today, then i cant help but wonder why. does it serve society (the collective species so to speak) to have a majority accepting the "way it is" as their way?
conected in a way, warner, i thought of you with the following quote from kant's article on enlightment; "a public can only achieve enlightment slowly. a revolution may well put an end to autocratic despotism and to power-seeking oppression, but it will never produce a true reform in ways of thinking. instead, new prejudices, like the ones they replaced, will serve as a leash to control the great unthinking mass."
have to go but wanted to throw some of that out there.
Entertainment sports are something that was earned by the collective work of human cooperation in effort to improve the quality of life, but when life itself is in jeopardy the only encouragement for us as a race should be that we've overcome things with cooperation before and that we have as a race the want to continue our lives; I see needing a distraction from a real event in life in the form of a contrived sports event as cowardice by the public - we are alive and we should not shy from any real experiences of life and distract our minds. It may be harsh view, and one might say not realistic, but to ask people to embrace and experience life instead of hiding from it is not out of line; in fact saying that it is worthy because it is a distraction further devalues real life experiences and in turn life and humanity in the minds of those who turn to it, who are then following anothers light...
If you post your email adress, or send me an email at jasperyate@mac.com I'll send you a an invite to post and you can make your own posts about the Foucault and the tour de france - which I actually will be posting about - instead of making them side notes...
Of note: One must remember that the 2005-2006 season for the Saints was a disaster. They played at high schools I believe and rarely at home. I was a reflection of the Diaspora of New Orleans residents forced to seek home and work elsewhere. However we live in a bourgeoisie society where those with the money (huge football franchises/owners) take precedence over the working people. I agree with Jasper that it is cowardly to seek inspiration and a distraction in sport in the face of tragedy. It is symptomatic of the bourgeoisie society we live in. Something bad happens...lets give money to those who have it already! Did not my President call on all Americans in the days following 9.11.01 to be patriotic by going out and spending money? If anything the rebuilding of the Saints franchise hurt those devastated by Hurricane Katrina by tricking the entire country into thinking that New Orleans must be doing better if its team is not only playing in the dreadful superdome, but doing well too. That quote that ms. j put up from that msnbc sports columnist sums up the fact that bourgeoisie professional sports act as an opiate to the masses in helping them alleviate the pain of disaster. Such a pain used to be dealt with constructively by doing something about what ever caused it. Now its easier to write a check to an organization (which will take 50+% for administrational costs) and turn on the mets game. Preposterous.
Following 9.11.01, the Jets refused to play the following weekend...
"Coach Herman Edwards recalls how his team was willing to drop to 0-2 by forfeiting their scheduled game in Oakland that Sunday had the NFL insisted the game be played. They flatly told commissioner Paul Tagliabue they would not get on a plane and fly to the West Coast. He could ring them up with a loss to go along with that season-opening defeat to Indianapolis, they did not care.
"I told the players a year ago we sat in the same room, and they would have gone 0-2," said Edwards. "That's what they wanted to do. I told them I would never forget that, what you guys stood for as men."
I can't find the direct quote, but Edwards (then coach) really called out the commissioner, saying that the American people didn't need to sit around on Sunday watching football, that being with their families and going to church was more important.
One can argue about the role of religion but that’s not my point, the point is: when disaster strikes people don’t need distractions they to go help other people. Putting money in the bourgeoisies’ pockets is not the way to help those in need.
60 years ago following 9/11 or Katrina troves of teenage boys would have signed up for the army or national guard, unfortunately today our government deceives its people (thus most of those who enlisted following 9/11 are presently being killed in Iraq) and our national guard is too in Iraq rather than in places like New Orleans following natural disasters. Doing something is harder than ever, and for Americans today it usually entails giving up, writing a $20 check, and watching multimillion dollar organizations face off in organized sport.
by the way i made a blog:
theyouthwillsleepnolonger.blogspot.com
I meant by bringing up the disaster that was the Saints 05/06 season that the people obviously couldn't have much of a vested interest and emotional faith in this team because it was such a culture of losing, so that clinging to them when they were winning just because of a disaster on the home front made the fans a whole new level of front runners, in the game, and in life - participate when it goes well, look for distraction when it is unpleasant.
i was just thinking. you're whole introduction to this post sounds kinda like justification for spreading your word to a wider audiance, if you dont you are only ever going to havve yoyur core group of intellectuals and no one else...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6921078.stm
What do you mean? I am trying to spread it, but I was sorta joking around cuz the few of you guys now are people who are interested in the same sort of social change or whatever. I'm telling people to spread it around like I told liz to tell people at college n shit but itll take some time to build up but i hope one day it will be visible and effect at least some people
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