The NFL's culture has also changed dramatically since I was young. Some of these changes are humane, and others are merely cultural shifts. For example, another friend sent this parody video of the growing culture of celebrations in the NFL.
Now I haven't watched an NFL game in years, so there's no reason they would care what I think about that, but apparently it does closely follow what the real celebrations are starting to look like.
When my father was alive, he used to complain about this sort of thing regularly. He sounded a lot like the voiceover in the parody video. This may be a thing like AVI's discussion of 'uptalk,' a cultural change of no real significance which is going to happen just because things change and that's that. Or it might be, as dad used to say and the announcer conveys, that it marks the decline of real virtues like sportsmanship and civility, replaced by real vices like grandstanding and egoism.
It could also be a combination of the two, some of it being merely cultural and some of it representing a larger cultural shift towards egoism. I'll leave that for the discussion in the comments.
My paternal grandfather used to say, "Act as if you've been there before," when my father and uncle tried to celebrate too obviously in the baseball field. (1950s-60s).
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
Yes, Dad said that often as well.
Delete"Or it might be, as dad used to say and the announcer conveys, that it marks the decline of real virtues like sportsmanship and civility, replaced by real vices like grandstanding and egoism.
ReplyDeleteIt could also be a combination of the two, some of it being merely cultural and some of it representing a larger cultural shift towards egoism."
Ironic, isn't it? The offense people take at Trumps ego and hubris, when they themselves made it a 'virtue' and gave it esteem and honor (Apprentice, #1 show for years). You reap, you sow, that's an eternal truth.
That's an interesting point. I quit watching television a long time ago, but I grew up with the World Wrestling Federation, and I can definitely see the effect of that form of performance and rhetoric on Trump (who was a WWF/WWE participant as well in his career). If you read his mean tweets in the voice of Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage they suddenly make a lot more sense.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're right. The people chose this; choosing the form of their destructor, as it were, only it turns out he's hardly the worst thing going. That doesn't mean he's good, and certainly not the best thing going. Just definitely not the very worst.
That whole style of self promotion over sportsmanship, and "trash talking" in public was really made mainstream by Muhammad Ali. I really learned a lot about sportsmanship hearing my father decry his antics, and rooting for Frazier, who was a great sportsman. The lionization of Ali bothers me to this day, and his corrosive effect on sportsmanship has certainly left a lasting mark.
ReplyDeleteI should also point out that while I was never a fan of WWF/WWE (I've never been drawn to that sort of thing), it's a little different. I remember reading a piece that explained how, yes it's fiction, but everyone is in on it, so it's honest fiction rather than fake. I think that also buys it more license for flamboyancy (though it's become much more sexualized since the early days, for example the DX catch phrase). I might give it a little more leeway because of that, but only a little.
ReplyDeleteSo, just to be clear, I liked WWF when I was 15. I have no idea who DX is! I watched it in the era of that same Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage I mentioned. I haven’t seen one of these matches in decades.
ReplyDeleteBut I do hear the echoes of the language in how Trump talks. It’s the key to understanding his political rhetoric, I think.