"The heroes of war and the heroes of sport are indistinguishable in militarized societies. War is sold to a gullible public as a noble game. Few have the athletic prowess to play professional sports, but almost any young man or woman can go to a recruiter and sign up to be a military hero. The fusion of the military with baseball, along with the recruitment ads that appeared intermittently Saturday on the television screens mounted on green iron pillars throughout Fenway Park, caters to this illusion: Sign up. You will be part of a professional team. We will show you in your uniform on the Jumbotron in Fenway Park. You will be a hero like Mike Napoli."
Mr. Hedges nearly always
gets it right.
Nike U. in Eugene is a leader in the conflation of sports and militarism with its annual "honor the troops" theme in its spring game, a trend started by the loutish Chip Kelly and carried forth by the mousy new Field Marshall, Mark Helfrich.
When Buddy Dooley says "freedom" is a con, he's talking in part about this growing cancer on the consciousness of America.
Indeed, it is now so prevalent that it rather negates freedom while promoting mindlessness--the "blindness" of our citizenry.
TS
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