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Friday, July 14, 2006
Soccer and nihilism?
Ravikiran emails me a link to an essay in the Weekly Standard by Frank Cannon & Richard Lessner in which they write:
The gents also write, "In truth, soccer could be played without using a ball at all, and few would notice the difference." In that case, Zinedine Zidane would surely have claimed that his headbutt was a header.
And I love Seinfeld.
Soccer is the perfect game for the post-modern world. It's the quintessential expression of the nihilism that prevails in many cultures, which doubtlessly accounts for its wild popularity in Europe. Soccer is truly Seinfeldesque, a game about nothing, sport as sensation.Surely these gents are kidding, I thought. Instantly I went to the bottom of the page to check if this was the handiwork of The Postmodernism Generator. (Have you read "Postmodernism Disrobed" by Richard Dawkins?) Not so.
The gents also write, "In truth, soccer could be played without using a ball at all, and few would notice the difference." In that case, Zinedine Zidane would surely have claimed that his headbutt was a header.
And I love Seinfeld.
