News & Analysis
VIDEO: Super Bowl Not-So-Super
Super Bowl XLVI highlights 11 ... The Giants and Patriots went toe to toe in Super Bowl XLVI, which came down to one final Hail Mary. In the end, Eli Manning was named MVP again in leading New York to a 21-17 win over New England. – NFL
Dominant Social Theme: Whatta game! Whatta country!
Free-Market Analysis: Look, honestly, when our gnomes play our elves, the casualties are "keepers." It's everything we can do to keep the gnomes from making elf-kabobs after a tough scrimmage.
But the US "football" Super Bowl is surely a big affair in North America, and probably parts of Europe besides. And far less problematic, at least in the past.
Unfortunately, as the 21st century progresses, the cultural dissonance between the great spectacles being generated by the US's sports and entertainment industries and the reality of what the US (and the larger West) is becoming is growing ever wider.
What this means, generally, is that the Anglosphere power elite that wants to rule the world formally (as opposed to informally) is losing one of its best resources.
Hollywood movies and sports spectaculars both have elevated the US in the eyes of the many impoverished billions of the world. But as the US's authoritarian nature emerges in this modern age, the bloom may eventually come off the rose.
The US is likely involved in too many wars and too much sociopolitical and economic manipulation for its "software" to have the impact in the 21st century that it had in the 20th.
This is not for lack of trying, of course. Every part of US modern-day sports and entertainment is promotionally focused, from our point of view. The idea is to convince US citizens, and the wider world, that Western regulatory democracy is the only viable organizing force for society.
Of course, this is not true. Human beings lived in small, even tiny communities, for tens of thousands of years. Many of these communities were probably migratory. Bigness may have been achieved by flexible linkages between these communities that expanded and contracted as necessary.
Archeologists are constantly surprised by the amount of global trade that apparently existed for thousands of years even before the Neolithic. Large, modern-style cities were not apparently necessary for this trade to occur.
If people did live in large communities, they may have been organized differently than today's. There is ample evidence that even in Rome, to begin with, people could settle there subject to their own customs and judicial systems. The leaders of the larger Roman civil society made no attempt to bring everyone under one roof.
But that sounds strange to us in the modern-day, conditioned as we are to accept the dictates of an all-encompassing state when it comes to economics, politics and even the judicial system.
The US entertainment and sports establishment is supposed to reinforce that sort of perception. The Anglosphere's dominant social themes – the fear-based promotions that frighten middle classes into giving up power and wealth to globalist facilities – are all on display as regards these leisure facilities.
Games are played "within the lines" with refs (like government) having the final word. And when it comes to movies, a constant stream of citizen superheroes with super powers make conscious decisions to reinforce the authoritarian status-quo – and to work with the "authorities" in any and every capacity to catch the "bad guys."
Of course, real superheroes (especially those with super-minds) often provide what the powers-that-be consider as subversive ideas and inventions. Many are NOT likely to put their talents to work for incipiently fascist, warlike states.
And when it comes to the world-class games that the Anglosphere relentlessly promotes, a mis-alignment can be similarly noted. In the games being played, super-star athletes would never contemplate going "outside the lines" to score a point or goal.
But in REAL LIFE, achievement is often gained by those who have the imagination and fortitude to travel outside of acceptable boundaries. Games are NOT like life. And those who "win" in life often take avenues to success that initially seem to break the rules.
That's anathema to the Anglosphere power elite that has surely created the current hundred-billion dollar sports-and-entertainment complex at least in part to influence the ambitions and imagination of those that have the misfortune of residing within the current, often-ruinous culture.
Having written the above, of course, one also might note that both Hollywood and the NFL are truly exceptional examples of the provision of "bread and circuses." The Anglosphere surely provides these spectacles with a fine and practiced hand ...
Click to watch the highlights video at NFL.com:
(http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d826aedd4/Super-Bowl-XLVI-highlights)
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Posted by terrybee on 02/06/12 01:29 PM
It's the type of Women that follow rugby(European version) ,-that are totally frightening.
Bullying authoritarian endorsed & bank -sponsored to the hilt here in Ireland.
I know 'live & let live' n' all that ; but it's appalling the way these circuses are elevated & all real inventive talents marginalised or just plain stamped -out @ the banker bought n' controlled college -campus' .
Thank's for the Icke interview(i see people complaining that He disinformation!!!) ..not a chance imho.
He was one of the few people to originally come out in support of 'Holly' ; the kid from Edinburgh(Scotland) who was sadistically abused by a paedophile judge & others.
David is a Great Man.
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Posted by terrybee on 02/06/12 01:42 PM
..btw; an interesting show on TV the other night (one of the few non-controlled propaganda spewer channels) ,-about a guy who claims The ark of the covenant is buried in the Welsh hill's.
Richard D Hall the reporter.
Thank's DB.
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Posted by dbayer on 02/06/12 02:29 PM
To go along with your whole theme, here is a very well researched book on why all Major League sports are totally fixed. As the author says,
Question: ARE PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FIXED?
Answer: Would you leave a multi-billion dollar business up to chance?
Click to view link
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Posted by GWBramhall on 02/06/12 03:41 PM
Yes, I suppose you can make an analogy between American sports and
the Roman circus. However you lose me with all the shadowy puppet
masters you seem to see even here. The world is largely run by a
certain set of rules and success in football, as in life, is found by
going against tendencies and advancing the ball by clever play making.
The game would be far less compelling if there were no rules. Shooting
the blitzing linebacker before he tackles your quarterback, would be excessive, perhaps not in the circus but you get my point. I suppose it helps keep the voters eye off the ball. But joblessness and a greedy socialistic government taking too much from the private sector to lavish on the public sector, can grab your attention and subvert the best of plans of your elites. It seems to me a common theme in our movies is how the government and police are always the bad guys or seldom good or have segments that are corrupt. How does this build confidence in the idea of a new world order?
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Posted by GWBramhall on 02/06/12 03:51 PM
Question: ARE PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FIXED?
Answer: Would you leave a multi-billion dollar business up to chance?
Yes, if it added to its compelling nature and popularity. I can see in
some cases the league might prefer to see the big market franchises
prevail for better TV ratings, but how do you explain the not too infrequent successes of small maket teams and how the leagues are continually looking to enhanse parity even to the point of cancelling certain trades they find not in the best interest of the game?
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Posted by chad2 on 02/06/12 04:15 PM
Okay, football is a game. No more analysis needed. This article sounds like it was written by a foreigner anyway. If you don't live in the US then you don't understand the Super Bowl :)
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Posted by dave jr on 02/06/12 04:31 PM
Like regulatory government, sports isn't fun anymore when nit-picking rules determine the outcome instead of talent.
None the less it is an entertainment extravaganza where commercials and new products and the half time show are just as big a draw.
After Janet Jacksons 2004 wardrobe malfunction, there hasn't been another female performer until this year. Madonna promised no such malfunction, and then proceeded to show us her scantily clad crotch and Maya Arulpragasam flips us off! Click to view link
LMAO!!!
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 02/06/12 05:28 PM
I'm shocked, shocked to find that you of all people call "game", lightheartedly, what in fact was a satanic, anti-christian ritual of heretofore unimagined scale and significance.
C'mon, a 21-17 win over New England? On Hail Mary route?? ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN FEBRUARY???
Denying is futile, chad. The evidence is overwhelming ...
Click to view link
Click to view link
Click to view link
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Posted by dave jr on 02/06/12 05:34 PM
"If you don't live in the US then you don't understand the Super Bowl :)"
Yes, it is very deep and only those accomplished in the art of beer drinking could understand :)
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Posted by bionic mosquito on 02/06/12 06:41 PM
To make this statement, you ignore several factors:
1) Government granting anti-trust exemption to professional sports leagues in the US (setting aside that EVERY entity should be exempt from anti-trust, but this isn't my point),
2) Local, state, and federal funding for stadiums (imagine the blessings if EVERY businessman could have the state pay for his capital expenditures).
3) The impossibly lucrative broadcast-rights fees paid by major networks to telecast the events, media being one of the more regulated industries in the US.
4) The merger of sports and the military, with every game preceded by a military fly-by, a military color-guard for the national anthem, and several commercials associated with military, death, and destruction.
I found it funny (in a pathetic sort of way) this past September, when - faced with a potentially season ending work stoppage, somehow the NFL and the players magically came to a last minute agreement to save the opening day of the season. Guess what the date was for the opening day... .yes, September 11. The tenth year anniversary. What a coincidence!
The military pageantry mixed very well with the emotion (and distraction) of football.
There are reasons for these facts. It isn't solely because 'football is a game', although that is what your masters would have you believe.
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Posted by Jeanna on 02/06/12 09:04 PM
Personally I chose to watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet instead. It was much more entertaining.
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Posted by dbayer on 02/06/12 09:57 PM
I think the answer to that is simple. Would you play along with the fix if your particular franchise was suffering financially? No you would only keep up the facade if you could continue to profit from it.
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Posted by MetaCynic on 02/06/12 10:27 PM
Isn't it interesting that the fatter and flabbier the timorous American masses become, the brawnier and more violent their fantasy heroes become? Professional jocks are aggressive, tattooed, muscular behemoths. Movie heroes are invincible, mayhem creating, chick magnet caricatures of a 90# (or more likely 200#) coach potato adolescent's fantasy of a real man.
Americans' self-image car of choice is the intimidating looking, mountain climbing, stream fording SUV - in reality a jacked up station wagon on big wheels with a kangaroo catcher up front - which in the real world is driven almost to a stop at every speed bump, itself a metaphor for America's chronic fearfulness.
And, of course, the fatter and duller the coach potatoes get, the greater the need to celebrate a big, bad military with which to kick ass all over the world - being all that the wusses are afraid to be.
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Posted by kenn on 02/07/12 12:17 AM
With shoes off and heads hung low,,, 2 XXXrays and 2 gropings each--- times the thousands of families that flew in to see a real mans game. Then guarded by men in bullet proof vests bearing machine guns, watched vigilantly by the Hot Dog venders they screamed and yelled pretending to be the men on the field. Afterwards back to the airport with shoes in hand, heads low and talking about the game quietly to not offend their gatekeepers... back through the XXXray machines and the gropings...
Yea,,,fun in the new Amerika
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Posted by Edgar Westmoreland on 02/07/12 01:52 AM
I used to follow professional football avidly, but it has been decades. I no longer care at all about it.
Modern entertainment is ridiculous and that is the best thing I can sy about it. Professional sports are entertainment for money, simply that. If you want to find fault with one, maybe you should choose one that is entirely dishonest, like wrestling.
If any sports in America should be discontinued, it is collegiate. Maybe then they would remember that education is what they exist for.
This article, and most of the feedback on it, are about as thoughtful and honest as the Keynesians.
Get a life.
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Posted by Jedediah Smith on 02/07/12 06:36 AM
This is actually the first year that I didn't know (or even care) what teams were playing in the game. The 'culture industry' is used to keep people distracted and adolescent. I know many men who spend hundreds of hours watching spectator sports each year, who couldn't imagine reading a serious book (such as on the basics of how the Federal Reserve works).
Click to view link
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Posted by dave jr on 02/07/12 09:50 AM
Ya, and these dull flabby kids have been raised on video games; desensitized, unambitious, uneducated, jobless and expertly qualified to operate drones :(
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Posted by Dilence Sogwood on 02/07/12 10:23 AM
Oh come on! Anyone can use sports metaphors for any purpose. Do you propose having your friends over to watch bass fishing or a Von Mises clinic? Talk about being dismal.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Ha, funny. Yes, all the parties WE organize are focused on various sorts of economic and financial theory. Aren't yours?
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Posted by Col on 02/07/12 10:35 AM
And I know just as many men who take advantage of that to let's say "liven up the lives" of ignored & bored Housewives.
The idiot box servers it's purpose well.
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Posted by memehunter on 02/07/12 12:14 PM
"4) The merger of sports and the military, with every game preceded by a military fly-by, a military color-guard for the national anthem, and several commercials associated with military, death, and destruction."
BM, this is a great point. I was always struck by this (even as a child), and could not understand why patriotism (and the military) should have anything to do with team sports. I remember refusing to stand up for the national anthems, to the dismay of some friends...
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