Yes, it's that time of the year again....We can just sit in front of our 50 inch flat screen and temporarily forget about all of our problems and lose ourselves in the corporate orgy known as the Super Bowl. A throw back to the Roman coliseum times, complete with Roman numerals....I think this one is XLVIII...
Don't have a job? Don't worry about it. No health care? For the next six hours that is not important. This is our annual communal get together. For the next six to eight hours ( depending if you watch any of the pre-game stuff), it is just awesome being an American! It doesn't matter if you are black, white, brown, yellow, gay or straight. We are all one, brought together, if only temporarily, by something everyone can finally understand in this complicated world.....FOOTBALL.....more after the jump....
Don't get me wrong I love football...I like college football myself,,,,Pro football is a business and an entertaining show....but I still watch it...( big forty-niners and chargers fan!) I like football, I just don't feel comfortable watching it in a Super Bowl setting...I don't feel comfortable with the week-long hype....I don't feel comfortable with the loooong pre-game shows.,....I don't feel comfortable with the militaristic theme of the national anthem, usually accompanied by some military fly-over. I don't feel comfortable with the over-blown hyped up halftime show which more times than not is usually embarassing....
I feel uncomfortable becasue I know I'm being used....Corporate America takes advantage of its captive audience to expose us to a day-long worship of all things material....and military.....There are always remotes from different military bases around the world ( and being American, we have them all over the world). The usual narrative is : we salute our military men and women for keeping us safe...
Again, don't get my wrong, I support our military, if not the wars, but I think they are being used as well....
I just want to watch a football game! I don't want to be sold an image of America that really doesn't exist. After the final whistle the corporate, military hustle will subside for another year and we will have to go back to facing the real realities of American life....unemployment, debt, no health care.....
Soccer is another sport I love. The World Cup is a month long celebration of the sport.....The final is watched by more people around the world than the Super Bowl could ever dream of! When I watch it ( and I haven't missed a final since 1978)..I never get that slimy feeling of watching something that really has nothing to do with the sport itself...I get the feeling I am watching an actual sporting event , uninterrupted by commericals.
So, in the end, I, like most of you, will sit down and watch Super Bowl XLVIII and cheer for the forty-niners.....I just won't feel all that comfortable doing it...