Movie 666

By Demon

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
- Noam Chomsky, Media Control

Athleticism and good health are hallmarks of meaningful human existence. Unfortunately, commercial society perverts both to secure profit and control. Therefore it should not be suprising when the Department of Fatherland Security comes out with its latest initiative…

Go team!

Watching commercial sporting events is mandatory. One will soon watch the Superbowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals and War in the Middle East under penalty of death. College basketball will not be required, but will be highly recommended. Soccer shall be exempt, because soccer is the sport of children and outsiders.

Mandatory sports viewing: after all, what better than sporting events to suppress free thought and cultivate the fascist values prized by our corporate government? Read on…

Although Americans have convinced themselves they are a people who always root for the underdog, in the world of commercial sports this is rarely true. Instead, Americans like to see powerful teams and almost superhuman performers beat the piss out of cocky but ultimately weaker rivals. Tyson, The Lakers, Jordan, The Raiders - these are not underdogs, but bullies expected to dominate, set records, and establish dynasties, just like America itself.

To see our philosophy of sports in action, consider Gulf War II where our Dream Team dominated and bullied a nation of contemptuous, impetuous, smack talking imbeciles who were not even capable of playing on the same field.

The outrage expressed by Iraq’s media team only added to the hype. America was glued to the tube as we blewout Baghdad with our power forwards and superior long range shooters. Coach George II and the boys shut out the Iraqis and further cemented the Bush family dynasty in the record books.

Our media is always ready to play ball too. Consider the daily newspaper where each issue contains an entire section dedicated solely to sports. There is no research to support this, but it is probably safe to say that the annual number of words about commercial sports in the average American newspaper outnumbers the words dedicated to the entire continent of Africa in the same given time period.

To clarify: under the new rules, figure skating, platform diving, and gymnastics will not count as sports. After extensive lobbying by the American Medical Association, golf is perfectly legitimate.

Never missed in the newspaper are the soap operas and statistics of the Big Corporate Leagues - business entities like the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA that enjoy the free advertising provided by the newspaper’s dedicated reporters and reserved column space. Why the sports section is not combined with the business section is actually more about genre than theme.

It is interesting to note that much reporting on the commercial component of sports does appear in the newspaper - in fact, much more so than the commercial component of war appears in the front section. Salary disputes, contract negotiations, stadium deals - these stories are as much a component of sports as line ups and box scores.

Sports fans are well aware of the commercial impetus behind the spectacle. The curtain has been pulled from in front of the wizard, but the audience continues to watch the magic show, and in fact has decided to make the man pulling the levers a part of the show itself.

The commercial component of sports rivals sports competition itself. Athletes compete not only for records on the field, but also records for salaries, fines, and shoe sponsorships. Media gives us the blow by blow, as if the athlete was boxing with the promoters instead of other fighters. Sports culture is actually enriched by the melodrama resulting from this commercialism. One need only consider the familiar tropes and themes which underpin thousands of recycled stories crowding newspapers and airwaves: rags to riches; sellout; loyalty to the highest bidder; corrupted by power; and the always popular serial, “I’m repaying my mother for all the trouble I caused her.”

That the audience doesn’t mind this commercialism is perfect for Fatherland Security. Because war and sports are never as pure as we want them to be. Operation Iraqi Freedom never enjoyed the pure, “good versus evil” spectacle its promoters hoped for. Despite the Homeland Propaganda Ministry’s best attempts, one always had the sense that we were committing some grave crime against a people not in order to save those people, but in order to maintain our iron grip on the world and its resources.

Nonetheless, we treated the war like a sporting event. We waved flags and cheered on the players and did our best to ignore the commercial enterprise that motivated the whole spectacle. Sort of like we ignore the beer ads between innings. Perhaps the reason sports is able to keep its stranglehold on American consciousness is because the action on the field and the roar of the crowd ultimately overwhelm any dissenting chatter from the wings. In other words, all of the disgust over dealmaking, salary disputes, and smacktalking is put to rest when the event finally occurs.

Which is why viewing such events will soon be mandatory in the United States. The ability to ignore the commercial motivations behind sports enterprise in favor of the spectacle itself is very convenient to a regime that relies on spectacle to cloak its own commercial motivations. And even if those motivations were apparent - like they are in football, for instance - it is easy to forgive and forget once the game starts.

Truly, an aggressive government of suspect legitimacy like Bush II could not hope for a better resource than commercial sports events in training its citizens how to be submissive and responsive to authority. Flag waving, chanting, saluting violence, and the wearing of uniform colors are only the most obvious trappings of fascism. Of even more importance is commercial sports cultivation of the spectator’s ability to cheer for a team simply because it is one’s team - no other logic or rationale is necessary for one’s loyalty. Not to mention all of the potentially dangerous brainpower that is simply inoculated by watching sporting events. Any brainwaves not forthrightly neutered by the game itself are easily washed away with a can or two or beer.

Stadium seating, or distance learning on weekends from home via television, mandatory sports viewing is in the interest of national security. Put your brain on neutral. Remember: this ain’t jury duty, so you can’t get out of it. Pick a team, and stick with it. Don’t be a fair weather fan. Most of all, be loyal to your team, because if the feds don’t get you, your neighbors will.

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2. Michael Moore Is Turning Up the Heat
3. Does the Matrix Already Have Us?
4. Madonna Attacks the American Life, Sort Of
5. Last Words: What the Other Critics Aren’t Saying

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