This week, our reading covered Simon Critchley’s article “Working Class Ballet.” His article discusses the significance of soccer in his life. He and his father bonded over the sport, and it was largely what brought them together. He views soccer at three levels: personal, political, and aesthetic. Critchley sees soccer as an incredibly important source of collective identity, specifically in the working class. The games themselves are a spectacle that, he explains, serves as an escape from the grueling, labor-intensive world that so many people are part of. He derives the concept of “blind hope” as of major importance. Teams provide a sense of belonging that goes beyond just the game. The mental fortitude required to suffer repeated failures and still be a fan of the team allows people a sense of unity. People don’t support teams because of their success but because of the people around them.
Critchley views the game as a political spectacle as well. Often using phrases such as “capitalist” and “socialist” to view the sport. He believes the game is now a capitalist asset, unlike how he viewed old teams as socialist. This conclusion is drawn from the ideal of the games being a community effort that required collective support. Soccer has been hijacked into a commercial spectacle sport, something that expresses his frustration over. While he does still believe the soul of soccer is saturated in the socialist ideals of communal effort, he sees its body as being taken over for profit.
Something I appreciate about this writing is Critchley’s view of hope. He keeps going back to the idea of blind hope being the driver of fans. He relates it to an exchange in the story of Prometheus. Prometheus was a god who gave humans fire and tecnology, as punishment he was chained to a rock and left to be eaten by birds. Prometheus was asked by the chours of the ocean if he had given the humans anything else. He says that he stopped us from foreseeing doom by sowing us with blind hope. The idea that maybe your team will win is what makes sports so entertaining, and i thing that Critchley does a great job of showing us that connection.
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