Comments on: Skipping the Super Bowl

By: Steven Augustine

Steven Augustine — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:28:41 +0000

More like Waffle and Circuses.

By: A.R.Yngve

A.R.Yngve — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:15:15 +0000

Bread and circus, Ed… bread and circus.

Well… at least the circus part.

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:47:10 +0000

You’re going to watch the Oscars, a jerkoff session between thousands of spoiled millionaires, but you attack Bruce Springsteen. Wow, I’d like to see the math behind that one.

By: P. Laughner

P. Laughner — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:36:37 +0000

Bruce Springsteen is the only working-class hero who has never had to work a day in his life. As Richard Meltzer said: Bruce Springsteen is what would’ve happened had the Fonz started a band. That some of his “fans” were all agog at having learned that the “Boss” signed a deal with Wal-Mart says more about their delusions of who he is and what he stands for than it says about Springsteen (and his affected Kentucky farmhand drwal) himself.

By: Nigel Beale

Nigel Beale — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:05:40 +0000

I’m with Bertrand Russell when he advises we solicit happiness from as many different sources as can be surmised…

Springsteen and Stevie, the Sopranos, Schopenhauer, Skydiving, Sex with Goats, the Superbowl…

one thing however that didn’t make me at all happy, and I’m not even an Arizona fan, (speaking of “…faulting a head linesman for a failed call.”) is how that asshole of a referee made it his mission to control the game, and get on camera more times than Kurt Warner

By: dpm

dpm — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:55:51 +0000

I’m a baseball fan, myself, but who’s viewing whom with condescension here?

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:33:43 +0000

As you point out, the nation is facing some very serious problems. I think you misjudge people’s reactions though. It isn’t as if “Joe Laid Off” doesn’t understand that we’re facing a huge crisis. Lots of those people probably understand it on a very personal level. It’s for that reason that events and traditions like the Super Bowl are so important.

Tomorrow we’ll all be back watching the economy continue to collapse and worrying about our jobs. If people can’t have a raucous party every now and then, they’ll go nuts with anxiety and hopelessness.

I do agree with your point though, that the energy could be directed towards the pressing concerns. If, for example, the Super Bowl had a zero-carbon footprint, or something like that, I think the event could be totally fun and more meaningful.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:53:10 +0000

I hear your point Ed, loud and clear. And I agree with your points about commercials and Bruce Springsteen. But the Super Bowl is an annual event and the natural end to the season of a sport that many people use to distract themselves from issues like the economy–people who oftentimes are not interested in distracting themselves with, say, a book like 2666.

I agree that it is a shame that a majority of people cannot direct their enthusiasms towards something more productive, but it is pointless to blame an annual event like the Super Bowl. It is what it is.

By: Steven Augustine

Steven Augustine — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:50:03 +0000

“It will not occur to the Super Bowl crowds that perhaps they are being manipulated, viewed with condescension by those who have put up the money, and that the painted faces of fans serving as B-roll aren’t so much celebrated, as they are ridiculed.”

This is the kind of deconstruction these hallowed “traditions” cry out for, Ed; the scale on which the audience self-medicates with projected illusions of normalcy-and-triumph is brainboggling. Now connect the dots to the Bread-and-Circuses 2.0 of media torture porn and we’ll have some full-spectrum dissent going. Even if you don’t: good post.