Hello Citizens

The Superbowl occured a few days ago, and while I know virtually nothing about the NFL, the event made me think about the social roles that are observed in sports.  I began to wonder how sports reflect the players involved, and why sports are so appealing to people from societies in disparate times and regions.  Particularly, on a recent broadcast of The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, O'Donnell critisized the subsidies that the government invested in football, but he also pointed out the paralells between American football and the American military-industial complex.  It made me wonder why this occurred- did football allow people to express their desire for violence, or were the two simply inevitable signs that human nature attracts us to violence?  Is football a social mechanism used to subtly convey social roles to teammates?  I believe that the previous is the most likely.  If one examines football from a Marxist perspective, it appears to be the most burgeousie of all sports.  Young football players are typically the sons of doctors or other children growing up in wealthy or upper-middle class households, and the relationship between children who play football and George Bush becomes more apparent.  Football is also a sexist sport to the extent that females playing football are virtually unheard of, not even on a seperate-but-equal basis.  Football spectators, on the other hand, can come from a variety of backrounds.  While the upper class that football players belong to enjoys the sport, people from middle or lower classes enjoy the idea of what Bill Maher describes as "Juiced-up millionaires bashing each other's brains out", because the Proletariat and the Petite Burgeousie enjoy the concept of seeing their opressors in pain, even though this is normally an unconcious desire.

Baseball seems to be a sport designed with the middle class in mind.  The violent nature of football creates an enviroment full of alcohol and loud reactions, and thus middle class fathers are more likely to take their sons to see a baseball game and teach their sons baseball at an early age.  Many parents seem to believe that baseball teaches "family values" such as hard work, good temperment, and rewrding success.  There is no wrestling or violence involved in baseball, except for the players on steroids, and the way the individual players are treated is slightly more equal than in other sports.  While all of this may seem appealing to well-meaning parents, it is also important to keep in mind that many children whose parents force them to play baseball become entirely alienated by the sport.  The question then is, if children are bored with baseball, does that translate into them being alienated by the values it promotes?

Basketball is widely recognized as the sport of the streets, at least within America.  For many poor black children, basketball is the only way to gain acceptance.  It offers an escape from their world of constant eviction, crime, or poverty, and it works wonders for children and adolescents who may not be as good in other realms as they are in basketball.  Even in the world of NBA basketball, elements of the inner city are present.  The strucure of major leauge basketball is very hierarchial, with most teams having only one signifigant player and a few other guys.  The realism of basketball is appealing to poor kids because it represents their struggle to become seperate from "those other guys", to be like LeBron James or Michael Jordan.  Unfortunately, to the poorest kids, these names may or may not be recognizable.  For the poor, they cannot afford to entertain themselves by being spectators of proffessional sports (NBA fans are typically subruban white kids), so instead the inner city children have to entertain and nourish themmselves by participating in the sport on a smaller scale.  There is, however, an element of irony present in the appeal of basketball.  While Michael Jordan may have seemed like he had some street cred, I have a hard time imagining gangsters and crack dealers selling or buying the overpirced "Air Jordans"- shoes marketed by Michael Jordan that cost way to much and were just like any athletic shoe.  They were purchased primarily by the suburban white kids whose parents could afford the stupid shoe, and yet teenagers were proven to be murdered by other middle class teenagers just so the shoes could be stolen.  Does this mean that the rap and the basketball in the 1990's brought elements of gang culture into communities that had never faced these things before?

Over the past several weeks, the government of Tunisia has been overthrown, the government of Algeria has been overthrown, the government of Egypt is on the verge of collapse, and the price of oil has gone up (oh no!).  Most notably, the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak realized that he was in Jeopardy so formed a new government by firing his cabinet and replacing them with numerous Egyptian personalities including the guy from Chasing Mummies.  A couple of days ago, Barack Obama delivered his response to the situation, and while many pundits hailed it as "a step in the right direction", I was led to see it as a bad move on his part.  In the speech, he did not seem to take sides, but instead demanded that Mubarak change his ways and that the protests do not grow violent. I believe that if Obama was well-informed, he would have cut all ties with Mubarak and supported the protestors.  From a humanitarian perspective, this makes sense, because most of us would agree that dictators are bad, but even from a political perspective I do not understand Obama's motivation.  While there is no understating the difficulties faced by the Obama administration (Mubarak is arguably the greatest ally of the US in the middle east outside of Israel), it is not difficult to see that Mubarak is soon to become dead or exiled or imprisoned, and supporting the protestors has numerous benefits following Mubarak's disposal.  The US could offer help to Egypt at the time of the transitional "power vacuum" to take Egypt in the direction of pro-Israel and pro-democracy, and developing close business relationships with the new Egyptian government would be excelent for the US.

February seems to be an excellent month for world-changing protests.  On February 1st, Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran following the overthrow of Reza Pahlavi, and today marks the 40th anniversary of Idi Amin taking control of the Ugandan government.  I find it remarkable that Idi Amin is seen today as one of the most brutal dictators in the world, he was routinely parodied on British television in the early 70's.  This makes me wonder if the pastor made famous by his speech at an anti-gay convention in Uganda, Dr. Martin Ssempa, will become the next Idi Amin (don't know who I'm talking about?  Does it ring a bell when I say "eat da poopoo"?)

I just wrote a really long and well thought through blog entry about how Rick's List changed the media, and then I accidentally deleted it, and I'm too depressed to write a real blog entry.

For a minute there, I thought that I hadn't updated my blog in ages, but I just realized tht my last update was sometime in November.  Which is still a long time, but not nearly as bad as I thought.

I probably should update my blog more consistently, and its not because I'm letting anyone down by not updating it (I'm fairly certain that my blog is completely forgotten when I stop updating it), but it is because blogging is probably the most intellectually relevant form of internet communication.  Unlike youtube comments or forums, blogs have a convenient traditional format of a writer and an audience.  If this relationship is derailed as it is in open forum scenarios, then the community becomes a battle between strongly opinionated people to have their comments viewed and responded to, thus leading them to make stupid statements for attention.  On the other hand, while there will always be stupid people and trolls and the like on any form of new media, blogs have signifigantly fewer morons because everyone responding to a blog entry recognizes that they do not direct the conversation, that such important tasks are solely the duty of the blogger.  People begin to think through responses with more common sense, which is excellent if they wish to make a constructive community.  This does not mean that each individual has less influence than the blogger, it just means that they have less influence than the blogger on somebody else's blog, though they still maintain more influence on their own blog (if this theoretical individual does not blog, I highly encourage him/her/it to do so, because blogging is an excellent means to contemplate particular topics between the blogger and the audience).

So blogs are really awesome, vlogging is kind of the middle ground, but what is the least advanced form of new media communication?  In my mind, chat rooms are one of the worst.  When people are in chat rooms, the overall enviroment is higher paced, and thus they tend to not exactly think everything through before they express a certain thought.  Today, we see so many gay or emo or short or fat or ugly kids commiting suicide over cyber bullying, and it seems like the vast majority of these suicide incentives come from chat room bullying.  Also, if anyone attempts to have a legitimate discussion in a chat room about a contraversial issue or something, the odds are strictly against them, because in chat rooms, almost everybody is somewhat of a troll, and a chat room full of trolls is like a physical room full of alzheimers victims, trashy celebrities, and malevolent Eastern European dictators repsonding to someone yelling "fire".

Another form of low-ranking social media is Twitter (in my opinion).  I don't actually dislike Twitter itself or the way that it is set up or anything, but one think that I dislike very much is twitter abuse.  Occasionally, somebody will try to make a serious point on Twitter, but doing so is an unhealthy use of the website.  When someone adresses a serious issue through Twitter, they are not giving the issue the respect it deserves in 120 characters or less.  Sorry Twitheads, but if what you have to say can be summed up in 120 characters or less, than in probably doesn't matter very much.  While Twitter does follow the same blogger/audience relationship as conventional blogs, this relationship means nothing when people have such a short attention span that they aren't even looking for a whole paragraph.  Twitter works excellently for memes, but just about nothing else.  Thus, it is a great service if you want to ask the Vlogbrothers if they think Ralph Nader would beat Ki adi Mundi in a lightsaber duel, but it is not good for Sarah Palin to explain her opinion on abortion.

You might be suprised that I left Facebook out of this blog entry.  So, instead of rambling on with negative things about yet another website, I will provide this screenshot from my short-lived Facebook days as irrefutable proof that Facebook is worthless.

PS I'm the moron with the homeless guy as my profile image.  I failed when I was on Facebook.  Let me just end by saying that Facebook is only good for stalking and nothing else.

I seriously need to update my blog more frequently and more consistently.  I totally suck at the internet. 

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*Yes, I did intentionally miz pel pi.

the blog post is crappy

after years [months] of tedious labor, i finally completeed a written booooooooooook.  yay.  too tired 2 usee exclamation marks.  i wrote a book last yeer but it was crappy.  gonna go getta coffffeeeeeeeeeeeee.  yay/

Yay!

Oh, why, hello there, comrade.  Isn't it a great day to be Communist?  I sure think so.  What's this?  You're not a Communist?  YOU INFIDEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  THAT IS CRIMETHINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YOU WILL DIE FOR THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!