Football players, TV personalities, Popular singers all have brains. The most successful have some sort of higher intelligence which facilitates their achievements.
But the sort of intelligence which allows you to set records on the gridiron, or to attract huge audiences of the unwashed hoi polloi may not equip you to comment on symbolic acts of protest.
For that sort of analysis, you need a different sort of intelligence, the sort possessed by Frederick Douglass, once a slave, then a force of history.
Were we to interview him today about the "take the knee" controversy, we would likely derive more useful instruction than the recent remarks by the dissipated former star running back, Jim Brown, who Donald Trump re tweeted, as Brown spoke tearfully about his flag, his country, his idea of patriotism and the act of taking a knee.
Douglass died in the nineteenth century, but he speaks through the ages to us today, having seen the empty, cheap expressions of "patriotism" and reverence for "the flag" in his time.
He spoke about celebration of the stars and stripes most emphatically, and although his reference was the state of the Black American in times of slavery, it will do just as well for the condition of the American Black who is stopped by a white police officer in the 21st century.
"What to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy--a thin vei to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."
Substitute "your national anthem ceremony" at professional (commercial) football games for "4th of July," and all this applies.
It is no fluke that the Army pays the billionaire owners of football and baseball teams to allow "color guards" carrying flags and other displays of military might, fly overs by tax payer funded jet fighters, and all the other demonstrations linking the champions, the gladiators on the field, the heroes to military virtue. Wear a football uniform, and you can be a hero. Wear a military uniform, and although you are a little worm of a man, you can be like them, a hero.
Lost in all the noise and pageantry is the simple truth that billionaire owners have charged the 40,000 fans in the stadium a stiff ticket price to roar their approval of the waving flags and the marching soldiers. The commercialization of patriotism for the addled masses.
A new opiate of the masses, not religion from Rome or the Baptist ministry, but from Madison Avenue.
Lost in all the proud tears is the story of the professional football player, Pat Tillman, who somehow perceived playing football after such patriotic displays was an empty gesture of patriotism, so he joined the Army, got himself shipped off to Afghanistan, where he did not die gloriously on the battlefield slaying his nation's enemies (who, it must be admitted, posed little threat to his nation from that impoverished 13th century nation) but he was shot by his own Army in a "friendly fire" mistake, which is a polite way of putting what the grunts call an instance of FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition.)
If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, it must also be admitted, it sells.
The Olympic Games, Inc, appeals to the most base jingoism, and the amazing thing is the raw hypocrisy of the owners of the games sending home the two American athletes who had the temerity, at the 1968 Olympics, to bow their heads and raise their fists while standing on the winners' platforms as the American flag was raised to the strains of the Star Spangled Banner. The very idea! Look at those (nasty Black) athletes despoiling this beautiful moment by a political protest! Why, all we were doing was celebrating the victory of the United States of America over the vanquished nations who had tried to field athletes from their countries of 5 million in a vain attempt to defeat the athletes from the country of 250 million! Such depravity!
Oh, the shame!
But my favorite example of the connivance of powerful interests is the "Bong Hits for Jesus" Supreme Court case, in which a public high school principal in the state of Washington ordered her entire student body to line the streets in front of the school so the students could cheer the passing of the Olympic torch as it was driven down the street. Remember this is a publicity stunt for a commercial enterprise, the Olympics, which got its start in 1936 when Adolf Hitler decided to spend public money to host the Olympics in Berlin, so he could market the success of National Socialism (Nazis) to the world. And in that great tradition, the Olympics have been passed down to us to celebrate nationalism, as shamelessly as the NFL celebrates it for marketing purposes.
A high school adolescent, unimpressed, decided not to participate in this pep rally for dollars and set up his banner, across the street from the school, not on school property, "Bong Hits for Jesus!" The enraged principal stormed across the stress, tore down his banner and suspended this peaceful protester from school.
The Supreme Court pondered the possible meanings of "Bong Hits" and that exchange among the puzzled black robed septagenarians is worth googling, as one justice asked, "What is a Bong hit?" And another opined Jesus was unlikely to be impressed.
They finally decided students, being under the age of majority, had no rights to express their opinion in school, or even across the street from school, because free speech would be detrimental to the good order and discipline essential to controlling what could become an angry mob of students in the classroom.
Thus the Court, with Kennedy the swing vote, ruled that order and the importance of control by state authority, was more important than the teachable moment about free speech in public schools.
Given that attitude, that free speech, that peaceful acts of dissent cannot be tolerated in American society, the President's outrage over taking a knee at commercial football games is entirely understandable.
But the sort of intelligence which allows you to set records on the gridiron, or to attract huge audiences of the unwashed hoi polloi may not equip you to comment on symbolic acts of protest.
For that sort of analysis, you need a different sort of intelligence, the sort possessed by Frederick Douglass, once a slave, then a force of history.
 |
| Douglass |
Were we to interview him today about the "take the knee" controversy, we would likely derive more useful instruction than the recent remarks by the dissipated former star running back, Jim Brown, who Donald Trump re tweeted, as Brown spoke tearfully about his flag, his country, his idea of patriotism and the act of taking a knee.
 |
| The Man Who Used to be Jim Brown |
Douglass died in the nineteenth century, but he speaks through the ages to us today, having seen the empty, cheap expressions of "patriotism" and reverence for "the flag" in his time.
He spoke about celebration of the stars and stripes most emphatically, and although his reference was the state of the Black American in times of slavery, it will do just as well for the condition of the American Black who is stopped by a white police officer in the 21st century.
"What to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy--a thin vei to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."
Substitute "your national anthem ceremony" at professional (commercial) football games for "4th of July," and all this applies.
It is no fluke that the Army pays the billionaire owners of football and baseball teams to allow "color guards" carrying flags and other displays of military might, fly overs by tax payer funded jet fighters, and all the other demonstrations linking the champions, the gladiators on the field, the heroes to military virtue. Wear a football uniform, and you can be a hero. Wear a military uniform, and although you are a little worm of a man, you can be like them, a hero.
Lost in all the noise and pageantry is the simple truth that billionaire owners have charged the 40,000 fans in the stadium a stiff ticket price to roar their approval of the waving flags and the marching soldiers. The commercialization of patriotism for the addled masses.
A new opiate of the masses, not religion from Rome or the Baptist ministry, but from Madison Avenue.
 |
| Would be Gladiator Hero |
Lost in all the proud tears is the story of the professional football player, Pat Tillman, who somehow perceived playing football after such patriotic displays was an empty gesture of patriotism, so he joined the Army, got himself shipped off to Afghanistan, where he did not die gloriously on the battlefield slaying his nation's enemies (who, it must be admitted, posed little threat to his nation from that impoverished 13th century nation) but he was shot by his own Army in a "friendly fire" mistake, which is a polite way of putting what the grunts call an instance of FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition.)
 |
| Oh, the Shame! |
If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, it must also be admitted, it sells.
The Olympic Games, Inc, appeals to the most base jingoism, and the amazing thing is the raw hypocrisy of the owners of the games sending home the two American athletes who had the temerity, at the 1968 Olympics, to bow their heads and raise their fists while standing on the winners' platforms as the American flag was raised to the strains of the Star Spangled Banner. The very idea! Look at those (nasty Black) athletes despoiling this beautiful moment by a political protest! Why, all we were doing was celebrating the victory of the United States of America over the vanquished nations who had tried to field athletes from their countries of 5 million in a vain attempt to defeat the athletes from the country of 250 million! Such depravity!
Oh, the shame!
But my favorite example of the connivance of powerful interests is the "Bong Hits for Jesus" Supreme Court case, in which a public high school principal in the state of Washington ordered her entire student body to line the streets in front of the school so the students could cheer the passing of the Olympic torch as it was driven down the street. Remember this is a publicity stunt for a commercial enterprise, the Olympics, which got its start in 1936 when Adolf Hitler decided to spend public money to host the Olympics in Berlin, so he could market the success of National Socialism (Nazis) to the world. And in that great tradition, the Olympics have been passed down to us to celebrate nationalism, as shamelessly as the NFL celebrates it for marketing purposes.
A high school adolescent, unimpressed, decided not to participate in this pep rally for dollars and set up his banner, across the street from the school, not on school property, "Bong Hits for Jesus!" The enraged principal stormed across the stress, tore down his banner and suspended this peaceful protester from school.
The Supreme Court pondered the possible meanings of "Bong Hits" and that exchange among the puzzled black robed septagenarians is worth googling, as one justice asked, "What is a Bong hit?" And another opined Jesus was unlikely to be impressed.
They finally decided students, being under the age of majority, had no rights to express their opinion in school, or even across the street from school, because free speech would be detrimental to the good order and discipline essential to controlling what could become an angry mob of students in the classroom.
Thus the Court, with Kennedy the swing vote, ruled that order and the importance of control by state authority, was more important than the teachable moment about free speech in public schools.
Given that attitude, that free speech, that peaceful acts of dissent cannot be tolerated in American society, the President's outrage over taking a knee at commercial football games is entirely understandable.
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteAgreed-the self-righteous, sanctimonious variety of "patriot"-those who prefer ritual and pageantry to actual expressions of freedom- would naturally be offended and fearful of any expressions of dissent. Taking a knee, holding a banner that doesn't proclaim the glories of the Olympics are unacceptable and Un-American. I found it particularly telling-not to mention rather amusing-that in the Bong Hits For Jesus case, the school principal initially suspended the student for five days, however, once the student started quoting Thomas Jefferson, she upped the penalty to ten. Democracy in action.
Which in comparison, only serves to make the words and deeds of Frederick Douglass all the more compelling. It was pretty risky to speak so boldly and critically at a time when black men were hung for less. But Douglass also lived in a time, as the saying goes, of "wooden ships and Iron men" and he was indeed the latter. Unfortunately for us, Iron men-and women-are a scarce commodity these days, perhaps another reason why the words of Douglass remain so relevant.
Isn't it strange that in the areas of science and technology, American society is light years ahead of where it was in the 1800's, but intolerance and injustice remain a constant....
Maud
Ms. Maud,
ReplyDeleteI did not know about that principal and the story of her increasing the penalty. As usual, you are way ahead of me academically--clearly you googled Bong Hits.
Wonderful phrase--ships of wood, men of iron. O'Brien depicted this in his Jack Aubrey novels.
Openheimer saw the bomg go off in the desert and cried out, "Oh, God what have I done. I have become the destroyer of worlds." But his general and other generals was all for dropping the bombs frequently and with the least provocation. Oliver Stone's book documents that much.
Germany was the world's leader in technology and science at the same time Hitler demonstrated the moral vacuum of Germany's masses.
Mad Dog