If one looks at Europe, or the so-called Western world for that matter as a whole, the headlines scream economic and financial mayhem, massive youth unemployment, rigged Libor rates, faked growth figures, dishonesty everywhere, bankster madness and a complete disorientation if not alienation of large parts of society, literally everywhere.
Nothing seems to be working the way it used to. There seems to be a disease engulfing all parts of society that threatens to destroy core values and every aspect of modern life.
Countries that used to be desirable destinations for many, are fighting for economic survival, with rates of general unemployment so scary that only the blind and completely stupid can’t see what’s coming down on all of us who are caught in the modern scare that spells doom and downfall.
Juxtapose that with the world’s favourite pastime, football, and everything looks massively different. Or, does it? Enter: “panem et circensis”, in other words.
Just like an ever-growing number of Swiss private banks that go under at a rate of one per week, many football clubs – and not only in Europe – are facing the music and are paying for the sins of the mad years where debt was good (Lehman, ick hör’ Dir trapsen) and where survival was guaranteed, no matter how badly a club was managed.
At times, it appears that “controversy for controversy’s sake” is the new game, played by many, including some who would never have gone there before.
The Ronaldo matter is one such game. A gladiator in his own right, one who mesmerises the crowds wherever he plays, this statue of self-styled importance is displaying the one quality that shrinks him to the level of a schoolboy: he actually takes himself seriously.
The glorification he cherishes, has apparently not helped him much in his ability to laugh at himself. Said quality is a key ingredient that sets humans apart from lesser equipped species, which are unable to formulate thoughts for themselves.
Instead of laughing off a laughable attempt at humour (Swiss style), and instead of moving on by further demonstrating his unquestionable talents (as he did amazingly well versus Sweden) and enormous ability to turn around a game by himself, good old Cristiano Ronaldo, the man with the two first names that have become a household ‘brandphrase’, continues to be miffed and has chosen to escalate a laughing matter that has been long forgotten by most. What for?
Now, he doesn’t want to attend the Gala where he would be crowned the Best Player in the World, one hears. Wouldn’t it be much more fun for him to attend and do a ridiculous two-step, thus imitating the one who imitated him – and adding a bit of ridicule to the whole affair? The one thing that applies to both players – the funny-man who was not so funny, and the global star who proves that excellence on the pitch does not equate with excellence of the mind – is that they should call the whole “conflict” off and acknowledge that an unintended mistake was made – instead of milking the “Oxfordian side-step” to death, thus boring the living daylights out of everybody who has a handful of functioning gray cells left.
The sad thing about this all, is not Blatter’s Sepp and The Ronaldo, and how they have dealt with a ridiculous incident.
The scary thing is that adults from all over the land – in fact any land – continue to make a fuss about such a non-event.
It reflects badly on a global society in distress that it starts focusing on irrelevant matters and treating them as serious issues. Especially so when there are real issues that determine lives and livelihoods at stake. At a time when the very same Portuguese find it increasingly difficult to survive in an austerity-crazed Western system of systematic destruction of entire nations – only to serve the interests of a handful of undeserving clowns and criminals (politicians and banksters), at such a time, mass protest is targeted at a septuagenarian who “tried a thing” (that flopped a bit) instead of showing disdain to the very people who destroy entire economies with their misguided and asinine policies.
It bodes badly for Europe when irrelevant things (such as an attempt at humour, a bit in bad taste… maybe) become the most important thing in the world, while the issues that should really matter to most people and their survival are not even mentioned, nor even seem to be a concern for most.
“Panem et circensis”. It clearly still works. Two thousand years later.