The Facebook has been burning the laughing fire over this football-kneeling-national anthem imbroglio. And man do I love it! Threads filled with screaming human drama; opinions hurled, feelings hurt, teeth bared-heads up. It’s definitely what I signed up for when I slithered on to this toxic piece of 21st century Neverland called social media. It beats any action you will ever find on the gridiron.
I’ve noticed a couple of running themes dappling the discussions on this topic. Specifically, people who are bulging at the eyes over these kneeling players tend to either: not like that these protesters are doing something in a manner that, well, they don’t like, i.e. “Why can’t they protest in a way that I’m comfortable with.” OR, they think it is wrong, wrong, wrong, for these cats to be laying a statement on us when they are supposed to be, “on the job.”
Ho Ho! If only these players would demonstrate in a way that WE approved of and did it when WE felt it was appropriate, well-then WE’D be..we’d be…oh, farts…What would we be? We’d be on our knees sucking the zeitgeist, as ever and for all time.
Something tells me that no matter how and when these players protested, the same people who hide behind notions of methodology and “time and place” would still find a way to shake their balls at the situation. And what kind of protest would it take to stupefy such negative vibrations? Maybe, the next time I protest anything, my tactic will be to run around giving hand jobs. HAND JOBS until they put Christ back into Christmas!!! SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS, mother fucker, OR IT’S OH COME ALL YE FAITHFUL TO YOU AND YOURS.
And then there is, THE JOB. So many voices decrying these dudes because they SHOULDN’T DO THIS KIND OF THING WHILE AT WORK. I get it. I understand the choked snarling about these men being, “overpaid, privileged, elites.” I’ve always thought it was pretty much a testament to the numb skull values of this nation that we put such a premium on a person being able to throw, catch, and run with a ball. But what do I know?
I know this much–these guys took a risk by making a statement. There was no guarantee that they would not be stepping in some heavy shit when they acted on their conscience. So, boo hoo to you that these players have a gig where they are indispensable enough that they can express themselves freely on the job and not get their walking papers. Maybe it seems unfair? Well, so is jock itch.
Or maybe this is where the nuts meet the blade in your eyes? So many people have said, “If I did something like that at my job I’d be pulverized.” Yeah, welcome to the star-spangled shit box. But, ask yourself this: why should these guys have to play by YOUR rules? Or, maybe that’s what eats into the agonized soul here… Seeing a black man who is, seemingly, free from the tyranny of the workplace getting to exercise true liberty and power in a way we’d all like to be able to?
Speaking of liberty, I can’t help but bring the concept of the free market into this thing. Because, at the risk of generalization, I suspect many of the people who are outraged at these protests are the same ilk who have a purple hard on for the infallibility of THE FREE MARKET. The free market fixes everything from stagflation to a limp dick…until it fixes you.
And maybe that is another reason why some people are all froth over this situation. These players have beaten the system with its own rules. Because the owners of these teams know it is in their best interest to keep these men employed, these athletes enjoy a level of job security that allows them greater liberty to express themselves than say, dumb half-wit poet wannabes like myself. That’s why the Beatles could say, “Peace, Love, Dope” and not get fired from Capitol records, right? Your free market has given these men the power to do what they do. If the owners thought it was in their best interest to put these rabble jockeys out of work-by damn, they’d do it with extreme prejudice. FREE MARKET-LIVE IT-LOVE IT.
So, here I am contributing to the noise spectrum. I’m drawn to the peculiar lunacy of it all-it’s one of my better qualities. I understand, we are a people who go giddy over silly totems like a flag or anthem or semen stained blue dress. It’s easier when liberty is reduced to a symbol. Then it can be packaged, sold, and controlled. WE love to whip it out when it comes to talking the talk. And we love to piss our indignant piss when we see someone actually doing the liberty strut.
Plato would be proud. If he could whip into our world and read the social media, he’d see we have become his ideal nation of philosopher kings. Big talking, big thinking locution hustlers who glory in the abstractions and save all our hemlock for the ballers and the doers and the dreamers and the movers. All mouth and no soul, welcome to the new American way.