No, this is not a text about the degrading erosion of parliamentary rhetoric, from which every sign of subtlety and elegance in debates has disappeared. Nor is it directly about last week’s football controversy, even though that could be a useful starting point. Because football is a “successful industry” and the path that appears to be most accessible for many children and young people without other types of horizons to overcome the limitations of their daily lives or even for adults for whom the pinnacle of such “success” is the “Ronaldo brand”. Because another type of figures who are presented as exemplars and models to be followed by their conduct, by their example, by their contribution to the common good have disappeared from mediatized society.
Therefore, from the so-called “young age”, sport, especially football, appears as the world that no longer just boys want to be part of, but the majority of young people, for whom studies do not guarantee future professional or financial security. And the tendency is to replicate the examples of those we admire, individually or as a tribe (club).
The problem is that, no matter how much the windows of failed modernity are polished, customs have barely evolved or, on the contrary, have regressed in the way competition, opponents and setbacks are viewed. Language has become impoverished and, in sport, expressiveness is either hyperbolic (in the commentary) or vernacular (among the participants). And it is considered natural, normal, typical of this context. But everything continues to spill over beyond this context and has become normalized in any type of everyday dispute.
Note that in the controversy over what the Benfica player said to the Real Madrid player, there was almost no concern about considering that the use of insult was wrong. All that was discussed was “which” insult was said. Racist, homophobic or other? The type of behavior, of verbal aggression, is not in question, because it is “normal”, and anyone who does not understand the specifics of football deserves to be insulted.
For example, the “regulatory bodies” of international football are very sensitive to certain offenses (and rightly so), but consider others normal, such as making, for example, very blunt considerations about the morality or possible more dubious sexual conduct of players’ mothers, wives or sisters.
If we go back to the episode between Materazzi and Zidane, the Italian’s verbal provocation was considered “normal” and only the Frenchman’s reaction was criticized. Even other punishable conduct may be provided for in the FIFA Disciplinary Code, but it is certain and known that almost everything is permitted and tolerated.
And this is how the pet is “initiated”, to mistreat the opponent as an enemy to whom one can and should debase oneself by all means. And what can the School do in the face of Football? Guardiola could well say to pay teachers better. Only if they go to get the money in Arabia.
Write without applying the new Spelling Agreement
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