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No, I was just wondering about school sports and whether it informed approaches to national competitions.
Sport offers a (fairly) benign repository for patriotic and nationalistic feelings. These feelings are a bit like religion in that they have a constant presence, you cant just make them go away or ban them. These feelings are better steered towards an organised event that provides entertainment. Left unchecked they will find expression in more dangerous ways.
Football can be pretty awful in relation to vulgar and aggressive expression of uber nationalism, but it becomes a domain where those feelings can be somewhat contained and observed. In ancient times these feelings were given vent in the Colluseum, football is just the same with a little less blood. Progress of a sort.
If I see a group of lads draped in England flags walking the street, or houses decorated with flags during the World Cup or the Euros then I think nothing of it. However we all know there's a half life to this expression, how many days do you keep that flag flying after the tournament has ended? There's a period of time of a few days, (we kind of collectively and instinctively know how long it is), before the flags meaning changes to represent something more sinister and mendacious. It becomes a false flag.
I tried and failed many times to get to compete for England. It didn't lead to me thinking the English were in any way superior to the Welsh... or Germans... and never saw fellow competitors as "the enemy"... I supposes that's where it starts tipping over... identifying with your house, or school, or city, or county, or nation, or country, or continent... coming together with those you share that with, is great... right up until it makes you think you are special just because of that identity, and considering those with other identities, those who wave different flags, as either the enemy or inferior... then everything starts going to shit (see history).
So is there a continium from sporting rivalry to jingoism?
If it exists, can we slice it thinly enough to be able to support, cheer on, take pride in sporting acheivements without stepping into the rubbish?
I'm interested because the preceding pages seemed to not represent anyone I know.
What would the olympics look like if you took the nationalism out of it and just had the sport?
TdF before Sky. Better.
I don’t feel I can wear my favourite black and yellow Fred Perry twin tip currently.
This actually made me laugh !
Wow, this has been a fun read! Our flag is pretty boring to be fair. The Welsh one has a ****ing dragon on it and we’ve got a couple of primary colours and a bunch of straight lines at different angles. We should have a new one with more colour (and dragons).
I associate the Union Jack with violent racists and people that love the royal family more than is healthy for a fully functioning adult. I suspect the second group consists of a lot of “I’m not racist but” types.
I find national pride and flag waving a bit odd. We should be banding together as a world to sort our shit out before it’s too late. Continuing to see ourselves as separate entities doesn’t help this in my opinion.
We should be aware of our past and learn from it, as should every nation. Hand wringing and apologising for it is just daft though. I find the use of “we” in “what we did” quite alarming. I had nothing to do with slavery, I was born in the 70’s. It’s a case of “what they did” not we.
I used to work in bridgeton in Glasgow a hotbed of rangersness and orangery. One day in July a wee man from the council came to take down the union jacks tied to the lampposts invoking the councils non sectarian policy on council property. A crowd gathered. He ended up in the Clyde.