Posted On: Monday - November 26th 2018 5:44PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Big-Biz Stupidity Bread and Circuses
What do you do when you interact with someone, knowing it'll just be for a short while, saying in a motel lobby, or sitting by him in an airplane, before he's got all the electronics out and running? "How about the cold weather?!" Nah, that can be a big No-No now, what with Global Climate DisruptionTM being so political and all. Nope, better not talk about the weather! "Oh, Arkansas, huh, yeah, those Razorbacks, blah, blah ..." That's much better. It's what people do now, look at a jersey, hat or just figure from where you told them you're from and start off about football. This is EVERYWHERE now, and I want no part of it.
Everyone's supposed to care, if only a little bit. Saying "Football? I don't give a crap." is apparently rude in today's America. OK, maybe it always was, but how about "Man, our country's getting changed for the worse daily. I'm not worried about the sports right now. Here's the latest ..."? Now, that's even ruder, as politics is a big No-No, just like the weather, which is politics. It's probably always been somewhat of a bad idea to start out like this with someone, but then this used to be a more unified country and the divisions were not so big.
Well football is big business, I'll give it that. It's got to be the biggest business in all that people call the "sportsball", usually meaning big spectator sports that entertain, suck up people's time, and distract them from thinking about real, important things. Though it's only 8 weekends a year or so for each city with a pro team, and maybe 6-7 for college (the small ones having fewer due to, yeah, it's not as much money), the events are huge, and the money spent is huge. I don't even want to look it up, but something tells me seats at a pro game are going to be in the $50-100 range. (Sure, feel free to edify me in the comments.) Try bringing a family of 5, paying for parking, and buying food and drinks there (they search your stuff, so you can't sneak it in anymore). I'd say it'd set you back $400-$500 if you're lucky.
In college, the students used to get their tickets free, but I don't know anymore. Are they too spoiled by the school loan money to try to make a buck by scalping them, as we did, to people more interested in the game? In those games, such as the Crimson Tide in the pic above, it's the alumni and those in the state that seem to care even though they never even attended who spend the big bucks. I mean biz-jets and King-Airs fly in from all over for these things, and those weekends must bring in 10's of millions of bucks into town.
One can watch this stuff on TV, and be just as excited. That's cheap enough, though the support for ESPN, et al, and the cable company is still a part of (what I see as) the problem. Look, if you don't play, I just don't get this distraction. Look at the players. Are they your peers? What do you have in common with the thugs in these games?
I can get it with the young people, but the country is full of middle-aged people who get bent out of shape about this stuff. Do they get this excited or bent out of shape about what's happening to their country, to this degree, I mean? A commenter on a blog (isn't that where most of this stuff starts?) brought up the hash-tags. He mentioned the most popular, or is it trending ones? I don't read 'em, but his point was that #ThisOrThatAboutSportsball tweets beat out all the #PoliticalStuff. To me, it's more easily seen when guys get drunk. That's when they often can get fighting mad about this sportsball stuff. Could they possibly channel this anger toward what's gonna happen to them and their families by the big screw job that the elites of this country are doing, or are they not drunk enough for that?
Very decent people will not let themselves get excited about what's coming down in the future compared to what's happening in sportsball. Unfortunately, their political enemies, say the antifa types, don't even have to be drunk to be angry and excited about the politics. You may not want it, but the real fight is coming to you, sportsball fans, so channel your thoughts a bit.
Look, guys. They only show them for say, 3 seconds at a time on TV to titillate you (and assillate you?). Do you think I took that pic myself from the sidelines behind the waterboy? No, you can get a lot better than this, and all over the web. However, to actually GET some of this, you've got to be one of the big frat-boys on campus, or better yet, one of the players. You can't touch any of this stuff, you're not a part of that world, except for your generous funding of it, so ... I dunno.
It's true that there are plenty of people, many that I know, for which sportsball is just a hobby, like any other, do care very much for the future, and are actively doing what they can to help keep their country. I don't know why this bugs me so much, but maybe it's the phrase "Bread and Circuses". If Panera Bread and The Atlanta Bread Company, are the "bread", then sportsball events are the "circuses". It's all quite a big distraction from the fall of
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