House of Eratosthenes

I have a current friend and former work colleague who is very much into football. This time of year, there is occasional friction between us if I don’t keep my opinions to myself about it. Which I suppose is fair. It’s a pastime, and as such it isn’t about Republicans, democrats, religious denominations, secular types. In fact as I understand it, that’s part of the appeal: People from all walks of life come together. Unless they’re rooting for opposite teams, but there’s a certain togetherness involved in that.

I recognize and respect the stillness of this pond, into which the “fishermen” do not want any rocks thrown. This Beyoncé person, however (video ad auto plays behind the link) evidently is not that considerate…

We had some of our annual dust-up when the football fan pounced on me for not keeping my opinion to myself. He’s since figured out I’m on his side on this thing, my point being that football should just be football. And although I didn’t watch the game, you really can’t help but pick up the aftershocks of what happened at halftime, and it isn’t hard to detect a certain invasion underway. Is football about an approaching revolution, a razing of civilization to the ground so another civilization can be put in its place? No, and it shouldn’t be. Shouldn’t be about keeping the one we’ve got, either. It should be just about football. And yes, my opinion about what football should be, ends there. But I can tell Beyoncé went over the line. That’s part & parcel of living under a rule; you aren’t ignorant when others have violated it, and she certainly did.

But this is part of a long-standing trend: Things like football, that have nothing to do with political statements, being trespassed-upon by persons who have political statements to make. I suppose it is in the nature of all political statements to give it a try, find more ways to establish outlets, get the message communicated. It’s going to be that way, and by that I mean until the sun goes nova. It’s hard to envision something as being a problem if there’s no solution possible. So political elements encroaching upon non-political things, or at least trying to do so — while regrettable — is regrettable like gravity. Occasionally it’s inconvenient, but what of it?

The problem is that the rest of us have a certain tolerance for this, and it’s a selective tolerance. It favors the negative, the destructive. Those elements within politics that seek to build nothing, and desire to destroy much. Not that we’re ignoring it entirely. A firestorm has been lit by Beyoncé’s so-called “performance”; but, that’s not rejection, that’s just noise and excitement which is doing little besides raising the profile. To see what I mean by this, try this thought exercise: A halftime show imploring the football fans to turn to God and Jesus to solve their problems. Or: Just to work hard at keeping promises, being better husbands to their wives and better fathers to their children. That would inspire not just controversy, but rejection. There would be apologies. And heads detached. It wouldn’t find the level of tolerance Beyoncé’s halftime number did manage to find.

How did we get here? This has become routine for us. Destructive political agendas invade realms that are apolitical, that provokes a big nothing, maybe an “aw gee I wish she hadn’t-a done that” — at most. A political agenda that has to do with people working hard, telling the truth, teaching children to be productive members of society, commits a similar infraction…now you’re talking a completely different situation, a whole octave higher on the pitch scale of WeShallNotPutUpWithThat and WantToSeeBloodOnTheWater. It’s been a gradual and subtle change, but the change is certainly there.

I believe we have lost sight of what it means to contribute to — something. What it means to contribute to society, to a community in which one lives, to any assemblage of persons bigger than the one. It’s a common mistake. Our commonly-mistaken perception, at large, is that the right way to contribute has something to do with inspiring any sort of positive feelings in others, regardless of whether those feelings are meaningful or not. They could be fluffy, superficial, spiritually empty feelings. Or failing that, just go with the crowd, be a person who is in attendance of the whatever, and at least doesn’t do damage. And smile. That shows what a positive person you are.

This is dangerous because it leaves us vulnerable to missing the recognitions of two confounding realities: The participant who seeks to destroy much and build nothing, but smiles a lot; and, the one who builds things we all need to have built, but doesn’t smile enough. As a Christian, I believe Christ arrived at our mortal plane because of common misconceptions about what behavior was & required of people to fulfill the vision of the intelligence responsible for creating everything, to achieve the Design Intent. Much of the New Testament scripture reinforces that view. But as a thinking Christian, I doubt very much Christ possessed the mannerisms that our most successful so-called “leaders” possess. We know He wasn’t ultimately treated very well by humanity as a whole. It is true that He was the leader of a small band of people, and we know He gave sermons but we don’t have any indication that His personality had much, or anything at all, to do with getting those congregations assembled. He probably smiled about as often as that old guy in “Up.”

That is speculation. What we know for certain is that there was no obvious ambition at work, for Him to try to do what we commonly try to do, to fulfill our modern vision of contributing — make sure every single syllable uttered makes people feel good, none of it makes people feel bad. That was obviously not the objective. Pick a quote from the gospels, at random. See? It’s about finding the right path, rejecting the wrong one, fidelity to truth. Not feeling-good.

As Beyoncé has shown, destructive urges certainly do make a lot of people feel good. That’s the hazard right there. But there’s nothing helpful in our learning this because there’s nothing new about it. We knew that already. And no, I’ll not pretend she’s inconvenienced me in some way since I didn’t watch the game. And now that there’s this huge rolling-controversy going on about her gig, that still doesn’t inconvenience me either because I can ignore it if I choose to and eventually it’ll roll on by, life will go back to normal. Ignoring this is costless.

It’s the proclivity of those around us to say “meh” — while, simultaneously, vigilantly standing guard against any message resonating that is actually positive — that is rather like the living room drapes catching fire. It’s a house fire that’s already been ignored for so long, and yet, still has yet to do the bulk of its damage. And we can’t fight that fire until we put a little bit more disciplined thought into what it takes to contribute. We, as a society, have been under-performing here because we have been under-thinking.

I did watch the game, though I spent much of halftime putting The Lad to bed. Afterward I was left trying to reconcile the cheerful “buy the world a soft drink” vibe that Coldplay built up, including this image (that I can’t figure out how to embed, sorry), vs. Beyoncé’s sudden veering off into Fighting of the Power and Sticking of It Unto the Man. Probably shouldn’t try to make sense of that sort of thing – the obvious response is “Lighten up, geez, it’s just a halftime show!”

To which my response is, well, YOU lighten up, it’s just a football game, so why introduce the topic? But that’s just the sort of thing that gets you in trouble nowadays.
- nightfly | 02/09/2016 @ 09:48
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Entryism, into ANY unprotected nook and cranny, like cockroaches, and winter wind.
“The Trouble with tribbles” is…
If you build it, they will come.
Because, “squatting” is just…. easier.
Better putting in the effort in demanding “free stuff” um….rights.
I wonder how many folks watching the halftime show will be buying a foreign car in the next 6 months?
I wonder how many will invest their labor SCREAMING about “(re)humanizing” someone else’s fetus, in motion?
- CaptDMO | 02/09/2016 @ 09:48
Apparently I can’t even figure out how to link the image, much less embed. It’s here:

http://a.abcnews.go.com/images/Entertainment/gty_super_bowl_halftime_mt_160207_4x3_992.jpg
- nightfly | 02/09/2016 @ 09:49
I’m of two minds about this. Mind #1: She’s not being “political.” She’s a fading star who is confused about the source of her popularity — she’s convinced herself that she’s popular for her “you go grrl!” feminist grandstanding, not because she’s ridiculously smoking hot. And now that she’s getting long in the tooth, she’s (subconsciously) amping up the politics in a desperate attempt to remain popular. Cher went through a similar career arc, if I remember correctly, before turning into a plastic surgery addict. If this is true, expect to hear Beyonce bitching about Mick Jagger still getting to be a rock star at 90-whatever years old sometime in the near future (assuming Mick Jagger is still alive; has anyone checked recently?)

Mind #2: She’s not being “political” in the sense of “advocating for certain positions.” She’s being a typical Leftie, with typical Puritan attitudes towards fun — the Puritans were the original Lefties, you’ll recall, who wanted to ban bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Some people still enjoy football. We can’t be having that!! And so let’s get some washed up “star” to ruin it for everyone.
- Severian | 02/09/2016 @ 11:51
I didn’t watch Beyoncé. But I disagree with your take on Christ. I think he smiled a lot. People like to have him over for dinner and drinks. I think there is a reason they said Jesus wept. It’s because he didn’t do much of that. And when he asks the disciples if they caught any fish? That’s funny too
- teripittman | 02/09/2016 @ 15:10
Or the classic moment:

Peter: “Lord, if that’s you, tell me to come out across the water to You.”
Jesus: *smiles, crooks finger*
Peter: Oh. Welp.

(not a strict translation)
- nightfly | 02/10/2016 @ 11:17

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ContributingTuesday, February 9th, 2016

Contributing
Tuesday, February 9th, 2016