The Responsibility That Comes With Watching the Superbowl

 The Superbowl is over. We can now get on with life. Well, everywhere but Canada that is. We have the Four Nations hockey tournament starting Superbowl Wednesday? How many days of the week are named for the Superbowl? Is "Superbowl Wednesday" accurate? Who knows? There are many unknowns about Sunday's superfest that just make me go, "Hmmmm...."

First, pity the poor football fan that has had their love of the game of football nurtured at every turn by corporate sponsors, political propaganda, religious dogma, and, oh yeah, sport appreciation because there is an undue amount of pressure thrust upon them to go to the game and even while they are AT the game. There is no tellin' what the average price of a Superbowl ticket was. I dare you to find anything close to non-conflicting reports on it. Suffice to say that it was somewhere between a month's pay and a year's pay for Joe Football Fan. For the "average" fan at the game, that is to say the WAY above average earner in the Disunited States, Trump, Taylor Swift, Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Kevin Costner, Jay-Z, Adam Sandler, Paul Rudd, Pete Davidson, Lady Gaga... well the price of admission for them is reasonable. A drop in the bucket. They probably don't know how much a dozen eggs cost anyway, do they? My point is the average fan at the Superbowl was anything but average. And this microcosm of America is its greatest yearly celebration. A celebration participated in directly by only the financially elite. That says something right there. 

The TRULY average American has to either go to a pub or Superbowl party to "participate" or just sit at home alone and watch it on TV. But they're satisfied with the hope that someday, against all odds, if they live right and work hard, they might get to go to one. And if you doubt it just ponder the myth, legend or fact known as the "Super Flush." There have been reports of city manhole covers being blasted off streets and sidewalks in cities during halftime when Joe Football Fans who watch on TV like REGULAR folk all need to get rid of all the Superbowl refreshments they've been stuffing themselves with during the first half. Of course municipal sewage reps deny this but it makes sense. About 120 million people tuned in so when over a third of the US, most of whom live in the cities, are on the same bathroom schedules things can get a little messy. When large groups of people are single-minded of purpose, if that purpose is shit, there will be some explosively shitty situations. Keep that in mind as we project American Superbowl ethics onto the screen and see what rating you'd give it if you were a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. 

Let's stay with the pressure on the fans that I mentioned. If you were lucky (or just rich) enough to have attended the greatest cultural event of the American calendar year you could not just watch the game. Oh no, you were roped into responsibilities far beyond. Responsibilities that forced you to make choices, or at the very least to look around, read the room and go with the flow. We'll start with the most obvious and we won't get to them all but if you think critically about what you witnessed (if you watched) they'll come to you. Again, hard to get a consensus but what was the reception for Football Felon in Chief when he walked into the game. The first sitting POTUS to do so maybe because others were not just sitting, they were governing but I would never give the other presidents THAT much cred. It was more likely that they wanted to give that appearance and Trump just can't be fucked. He's done hiding his democracy-dismantling misdeeds. They are probably not ALL out in the open but enough of them are to get him the reception he so justly deserves:

Look at Taylor Swift's reaction to Trump being booed. Ha ha ha. Priceless! He got exactly what he deser --- WHAT? What's that you say? Those boos were for HER? Taylor Swift who pays her workers well - unlike Trump? Who has donated millions to disaster relief - unlike Trump? Who has donated millions to racial equality - unlike Trump? Who has donated millions to education - unlike Trump? Taylor Swift? A girl who has earned the title of philanthropist - unlike Trump? SHE's being booed? She has donated more money ANONYMOUSLY than Trump ever has. There is no way of knowing but I would bet that at least some of the money Taylor Swift has given to the many good causes she supports has actually been misappropriated by Derangement Orange trying to enrich himself by scamming those charities. Wait! I must be exaggerating. Trump would ne - oooooh yeah. Just one of a thousand horrible things he's done that the public seems to forget.

So the fans at the game probably reacted the same way to Trump, no? I mean if they're gonna boo a nice gal like Taylor... 

Okay, I'm not saying that Trump wasn't cheered but spare me the hyperbole please. "Raucous?" Standing ovation? "Crowd went wild?" People were already standing and cheering for the flag. It was strategic product placement. Zooming in on President Bone Spurs doing a salute to the flag he has absolutely forfeited the right to give should have gotten him boos worse than Taylor Swift's. This is what I mean by the responsibility that was thrust upon the crowd. They had to choose to boo or cheer. The whole nation would see the choices they made and many who don't have the time, intellect, or inclination to educate themselves would follow like lemmings. This was an opportunity for MAGA that could not be missed! THIS is why Trump was there and just to add a conspiracy theory of my own, how do we know the cameramen, sound engineers, TV production workers were not all MAGA flunkies personally placed by Trump himself like he's done with the cabinet, the supreme court, and who knows how many agencies in the DS? Did they crank the volume on the Swift boos or the Trump cheers or both? Is there a Zapruder film of the Superbowl that will go viral in the coming weeks that shows what REALLY happened? Who knows? Again, all the world's a stage. This may be why actors, singers and other entertainers are the representatives who are chosen to deliver messages of ethics to the country. Hell, Trump and Reagan - movie star and TV star. 

But there is something going on in the Disunited States that has happened before in history. Before I wax too philosophical (and that's coming, fair warning) look at the Superbowl program. It could be taken as a dirty tactic to hijack the emotions of Louisiana and the country to somehow blend the resilience shown after the Bourbon Street truck killings at the beginning of this year and the unconditional patriotism that Americans are expected to have even at the worst of times (which is right now) and spin them into support for the cult of stupid that is Donald Trump's government. What the hell was that Brad Pitt "spirit of the huddle" bullshit if not a call to mindless patriotism for a country that has long since stopped being what is described therein? I'll answer that question. You know what it is? What it ALSO is? It's the gameplan for defeating that mindless patriotism that has stopped that country from being what is described therein. So, again, it is left up to the fan to choose - do you cheer this or do you boo it? Maybe that's not the right question. Is this a call to support your current leadership or to rebel against it? Here, listen again:

THEN what was there? Lady Gaga, Harry Connick, Jean Baptiste, the Big Easy band, and OH MY GOD, even the Black National Anthem! "We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered." "Keep us forever in the path we pray. Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee." 

THIS is the message America needs right now! Where was it? At the Superbowl where everyone was drunk with the wine of the world. 

Okay, one last video. There is a comparison made more and more often from history that is becoming a bit worn out but only because of its increasing relevance to the American situation. Unfortunately things do not bode well if you give some thought to the comparison. The two ways of reacting to the message that was broadcast over the airwaves during the Superbowl come down to being smart or stupid. That's as simple as it gets. To complicate it a bit:

The scariest point in the video might be the statement that stupidity is worse than malice. I often wondered which side Trump is carrying the flag for but he's erased all doubt - he's for stupid. As Bonhoeffer theorized, we can oppose the wicked, evil or malicious by the use of force, but against stupidity we are defenseless. 

So, America, you thought you were just watching a football game eh? Hopefully your Superbowl hangovers aren't too bad. Hopefully you can evaluate with reason and intelligence that challenge that was craftily proposed to you during the game. Hopefully you can get a little help from this post and others like it. I don't want to see your country go down in flames but it's in the cards. 

I'll leave you with a quote from Howard Zinn, the author of A People's History of the United States and an irrepressible optimist: 

Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires that a population . . . whose lives are filled with cause for rebellion, be taught that all is right as it is.

Reminds me of an MLK quote, "Society's punishments are small in comparison to those we inflict upon ourselves when we look the other way.