The Weekly Standard take on the World Cup
Leave it to the Weekly Standard to bash the world's greatest sport. In the midst of the World Cup, I must admit I'm not a huge soccer fan. Baseball and American football are the sports that hold my interest, but still, I respect the fact — and am awed at — how devoted most of the world is to the sport I call soccer.
That said, an article on why soccer will never captivate Americans was published yesterday in the Weekly Standard.
The money quote: Despite heroic efforts of soccer moms, suburban liberals, and World Cup hype, soccer will never catch on as a big time sport in America. No game in which actually scoring goals is of such little importance could possibly occupy the attention of average Americans. Our country has yet to succumb to the nihilism, existentialism, and anomie that have overtaken Europe. A game about nothing, in which scoring is purely incidental, holds scant interest for Americans who still believe the world makes sense, that life has a larger meaning and structure, that being is not an end in itself, being qua being.
So nihilism, existentialism and anomie have overtaken Europe, huh? As opposed to, say, fundamentalist Christianity? And what about the rest of the world that is so bonkers for the sport? What about all of South America? Northern Africa? East Asia?
Well, of course, all those people don't believe in a world that "makes sense". They don't believe that "life has a larger meaning and structure."
What is it about soccer doesn't make sense? And what is this larger meaning and structure of life? That sports should have lots and lots of offense?
The world doesn't make sense if your favorite team doesn't score at least 4 touchdowns a game?
As usual, the Weekly Standard fails to see that America is not the center of the world. Difference is what makes the world work, and difference is not an evil.
And as for his comment about being not being an end in itself: only someone who failed freshman philosophy or is severley spiritually ignorant could make such a claim.
The link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/23/opinion/main1746998.shtml
That said, an article on why soccer will never captivate Americans was published yesterday in the Weekly Standard.
The money quote: Despite heroic efforts of soccer moms, suburban liberals, and World Cup hype, soccer will never catch on as a big time sport in America. No game in which actually scoring goals is of such little importance could possibly occupy the attention of average Americans. Our country has yet to succumb to the nihilism, existentialism, and anomie that have overtaken Europe. A game about nothing, in which scoring is purely incidental, holds scant interest for Americans who still believe the world makes sense, that life has a larger meaning and structure, that being is not an end in itself, being qua being.
So nihilism, existentialism and anomie have overtaken Europe, huh? As opposed to, say, fundamentalist Christianity? And what about the rest of the world that is so bonkers for the sport? What about all of South America? Northern Africa? East Asia?
Well, of course, all those people don't believe in a world that "makes sense". They don't believe that "life has a larger meaning and structure."
What is it about soccer doesn't make sense? And what is this larger meaning and structure of life? That sports should have lots and lots of offense?
The world doesn't make sense if your favorite team doesn't score at least 4 touchdowns a game?
As usual, the Weekly Standard fails to see that America is not the center of the world. Difference is what makes the world work, and difference is not an evil.
And as for his comment about being not being an end in itself: only someone who failed freshman philosophy or is severley spiritually ignorant could make such a claim.
The link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/23/opinion/main1746998.shtml
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