Well a few hours ago Spain won the World Cup. Congratulations on winning something boys. After all, you tend to stay away from wars, and the pursuing of terrorists. Ok, ok that was harsh. Congrats to Spain.
But now for a more serious and less smart alecy note. A few weeks ago Dear Old Dad posted on facebook, (something he announced a few months back that he was going to quit using and yet still has not) a question for his facebook friends to ponder. The question was whether it was a coincidence that the vast majority of the world would cite soccer as their favorite sport and that this favorite sport of theirs is mediocre. At first glance I just chuckled. As a non soccer fan I love taking digs at the sport and it's fans, but a moment later I stopped chuckling and fully realized that it was most definitely a serious question to think about.
An average soccer score seems to be 1-0, 0-0, 1-1, or maybe if it's a crazy day 2-1. Now I've heard all the arguments against citing these ridiculously low scores as evidence of soccer being a lame sport. Just a week or two ago I heard a Brit in the gym telling his American buddy who was complaining about these low scores that he was "such a f---ing yank who had no culture." Yet this passionate Brit had no idea just how wrong he was. The reason most Americans don't go nuts over the sport is BECAUSE we do have a distinct culture.
Americans, whether they are even conscious of it or not, do believe in exceptionalism. They believe that America's exceptionalism is due to the fact that the individual has a chance to be exceptional, to provide for his exceptional family, and to provide exceptional products. So how does a 0-0 score reflect any sort of exceptionalism? A 2-1 score is barely any better. That's not exceptional, that's squeaking by. The American Dream is to excel, not to get by, by the skin of your teeth.
But do these scores and the overall culture of the game reflect something even more sinister than simply a bunch of guys willing to settle for mediocrity? I sure believe so. As a huge part of the world still operates on socialists policies, wouldn't having low scores which are consistently extremely close be the perfect type of game for a socialist utopia? The more I think about it, I can't help but think that Dear Old Dad was really on to something. Yet we can't think of it as simply an "us and them" mentality; as America leans farther and farther left, more and more Americans denounce American exceptionalism.
As I pondered this issue the story of the Russian spies came out. I listened on the radio and watched on the tv numerous interviews of former CIA guys, cold war experts, espionage experts, and regular old pundits, and I couldn't help but get the feeling that nobody was really taking this very seriously. It was all done and over with so quickly that I couldn't help but feeling that the majority of Americans just wanted to wish it away, or that they simply genuinely didn't care. This to me is terrifying. As I pondered these events I realized that this was a giant circle, because inevitably my thoughts were that too many Americans and this current administration didn't have enough respect for our nation to really look into this very serious matter, due to a increasingly prevailing attitude that America is not exceptional, which led my thoughts to soon be jerked back to soccer, and the World Cup.
On Friday afternoon I cleaned the apartment and had sports radio playing. Colin Cowherd on ESPN radio was rambling on about his theory of why more Americans weren't bigger World Cup fans, and why those that are, really aren't soccer fans for the three years and eleven months in between. He claimed that America is a country of rules, of boundaries, of efficiency and of organization. He brought up the aspect of soccer when they add unknown amounts of time onto the clock as his example. He spoke it in a light hearted manner. He wasn't necessarily being snide, but he was poking fun at people that don't enjoy the game in a good natured way. However, what he truly did, was inadvertently pay America a compliment.
America has always been a land of absolutes. The slippery concept of no right and no wrong, no absolutes, and an anything goes attitude has done considerable harm to the rest of the liberal world. After all, wouldn't a policy of no absolutes have to, by it's very nature, give way to societies that rule by perverted and twisted "absolutes," such as the islamo-fascists?
We must stop this type of thinking from continuing to seep into our American culture. Without absolutes and only illusions, we can not have national borders, which exposes why liberals are so resistant to enforcing the laws we have concerning them. And, as everyone has probably heard argued before, isn't it impossible for a state to exist without borders?
So as I sit here and attempt to rap this meandering post up, I realize that this World Cup frenzy has led me to think about our national borders, the Russian spy crisis, our modern tendancy to reject American exceptionalism, (though I truly believe the majority of Americans do believe in it, even if they don't realize they do) and the marxist dream of everyone having equal amounts of things in small doses, much like a soccer score. I've heard many soccer fans defend their beloved sport by telling me that the average player runs about 8 miles in a game, and that this shows what a great athlete he is. I don't doubt that at all, but it certainly is not an effective defense of the game itself. A great industrialist or businessman in America suffering under an oppresive regime such as our current one won't make the country great if liberal progressives take away his freedom and individuality.
FIFA is an organization with many great athletes, however it's overall simply mediocre. America is a country with many great individuals. Let's not let it become a mediocre establishment as well.
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