Soccer Psychosis: I ran across

18 Jun, 2002 by John Hawkins

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Soccer Psychosis: I ran across an article today on Andrew Sullivan’s blog that was disturbing in so many ways. First of all, it goes into how unpatriotic most Europeans are…

“In Britain, even what Americans would consider to be ordinary patriotism is often suspect. When Tony Blair first entered the prime minister’s residence in Downing Street, in 1997, he staged a little parade of well-wishers, all of whom were waving the British flag, the Union Jack. The British chattering classes howled their disapproval of this unsightly show of nationalism—one friend told me that the Union Jack always made him think of right-wing extremists—just as they had earlier howled their disapproval of the Blair campaign’s brief (and quickly withdrawn) use of the traditional British bulldog”

The fact that Europeans don’t even feel comfortable about showing pride in their own countries is part of the reason why a quasi-fascist bureacracy like the EU can upsurp their sovereignty with such a relatively small amount of public protest. But we haven’t even gotten to the really bizarre part of the article yet…

“(F)eelings run so high in Germany following a soccer match that no incumbent German chancellor has ever lost an election in the wake of a major German victory. The re-election of Helmut Kohl in 1990 was widely attributed to Germany’s victory in that year’s World Cup.”

I knew the rest of the world was nuts over soccer but if this article is accurate it’s even more ridiculous than I thought…

“Now that the United States has started to do a bit better, the future looks darker. Hearing the score of this morning’s Mexico game—and the rumors that riots might start in Mexico City—I immediately worried: If the United States started to dominate soccer the way it dominates basketball, then anti-Americanism might really start to get ugly.”

Now the author is speculating that doing well in the world cup will cause a surge in anti-Americanism? I have a question: what the hell happened to Europe? This is the continent that produced Winston Churchill, Joan Of Arc, Napoleon, Ceasar, Christopher Columbus, Alexander the Great, Machiavelli, Charlemagne, and Montgomery among many, many, others. Now, with the exception of Britain, they’ve been reduced to living vicariously through UN resolutions, soccer matches, and
Captain Euro comics. How sad is that?