Subject: Making Machiavelli proud.
One can never tell how other nations treat their sporting public to the spectra of a sporting series, be it cricket, rugby or most infamously, football but in this country we can't help ourselves by going over the top and pumping the air with pre-congratulatory stories of how good we are.
With the magnificent exception of New Zealand Rugby which has proved virtually unbeatable over the decades, most sports ebb and flow in who is on top. The Aussie test match team were a cert a few years ago, other than on the turning wickets in India but then they were eventually challenged by India as being, top dog. Cricket, whose format has changed the game dramatically with the introduction of the 20/20 and 50/50 over games is now a game of flashy batting, sixes galore, and no place to hide for the unfortunate bowlers. It's not cricket for the connoisseur, it's a game manufactured for a TV audience with short attention spans, much like American Football, which seems designed with a staccato, stop start format, perfect for the short blocks of time between the adverts, designed to keep the audience watching.
I suppose in Germany there is an assumption that Germany will at least get to the final of a football tournament. That the USA will scoop up most of the short distance medals in athletics whilst the Ethiopian / Kenyan runners will clean sweep the long distance events.
In this country we are fed the hype of a promised success and then, as events unfold and we fail, we are reminded there's always the next time. Why can't we learn to be modest, why can't we learn to bite our tongue before shouting to the world, "this is ours". The stiff upper lip which came with defeat is now replaced with blubbering columns of self flagellation as we seek answers to our tactic of caving in under pressure.
One can never tell how other nations treat their sporting public to the spectra of a sporting series, be it cricket, rugby or most infamously, football but in this country we can't help ourselves by going over the top and pumping the air with pre-congratulatory stories of how good we are.
With the magnificent exception of New Zealand Rugby which has proved virtually unbeatable over the decades, most sports ebb and flow in who is on top. The Aussie test match team were a cert a few years ago, other than on the turning wickets in India but then they were eventually challenged by India as being, top dog. Cricket, whose format has changed the game dramatically with the introduction of the 20/20 and 50/50 over games is now a game of flashy batting, sixes galore, and no place to hide for the unfortunate bowlers. It's not cricket for the connoisseur, it's a game manufactured for a TV audience with short attention spans, much like American Football, which seems designed with a staccato, stop start format, perfect for the short blocks of time between the adverts, designed to keep the audience watching.
I suppose in Germany there is an assumption that Germany will at least get to the final of a football tournament. That the USA will scoop up most of the short distance medals in athletics whilst the Ethiopian / Kenyan runners will clean sweep the long distance events.
In this country we are fed the hype of a promised success and then, as events unfold and we fail, we are reminded there's always the next time. Why can't we learn to be modest, why can't we learn to bite our tongue before shouting to the world, "this is ours". The stiff upper lip which came with defeat is now replaced with blubbering columns of self flagellation as we seek answers to our tactic of caving in under pressure.
Even our female footballers fall to the fate of being touted for greatness when the team is still a work in progress. The headlines scream their invincibility until they are beaten and then the hype machine move on to another target.
Its the same wordsmiths who make verbal hay whilst we choose between a 'lying clown' and a slightly 'less clownish liar', to be our next Prime Minister. It's the same headline makers who drip feed vile propaganda against a host of institutions, Europe, the NHS, the BBC without focusing the spotlight on themselves and the mendacious games they play on the behalf of their owners.
We are poorly served by many things in this country, not least our skewed educational system but the power to change the minds of people has to be the most dangerous.
From sporting optimism to false images of our capacity to shrug off the torturous Brexit shenanigans, we are fed a diet of falsehood of which Machiavelli would feel proud.
Its the same wordsmiths who make verbal hay whilst we choose between a 'lying clown' and a slightly 'less clownish liar', to be our next Prime Minister. It's the same headline makers who drip feed vile propaganda against a host of institutions, Europe, the NHS, the BBC without focusing the spotlight on themselves and the mendacious games they play on the behalf of their owners.
We are poorly served by many things in this country, not least our skewed educational system but the power to change the minds of people has to be the most dangerous.
From sporting optimism to false images of our capacity to shrug off the torturous Brexit shenanigans, we are fed a diet of falsehood of which Machiavelli would feel proud.
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