Posted on 13 July 2010 by Will O' in Sport
What a difference a World Cup makes!
Back in the 70s everyone loved the Dutch football teams. But that was when Holland was regarded as the most civilized country on earth. Liberal and liberated, it was a country whose people appeared to have grown up. These days Holland has moved disgracefully to the right.
The 2010 Netherlands football team has reflected this soul-eating shift. Johan Cruyff, who played brilliantly in their 1974 defeat at the hands heads and feet of West Germany, has described the team who lost this year as playing “anti-football” and choosing an “ugly path”.
By contrast, Spain in the 70s was still deeply under the influence of a repressive Catholic Church and just coming out of decades under the dictator Franco. Today they have the most progressive government in Europe.
If you hadn’t followed any of the previous matches, you would quickly have noticed the profound difference in the demeanor of the 2010 finalists. The Spanish team played with enthusiasm and verve and you liked every one of them. The Dutch played like bullies and every player wore the expression of a thug.
I might have mentioned this to you before Will O’, but my dad is originally from Spain, so he is over the moon right now. He’s been waiting for this victory for a long time.
Oddly enough, he looks back on the Franco years fondly. He lived through the Civil War and was part of Franco’s presidential guard (even met El Caudillo a few times). Yet he votes Labor… oh the paradoxes!
Nice to hear of someone on the Right going the other way with age. Young lefties inevitably turn conservative in their elder years — with all those possessions to protect from the new lefties.
I wonder if I’m the only one who misses those Vuvuzelas. Gonna look for one to get my daughter out of bed in the morning.
Check this for a hoot.
I kind of did the same thing as the old boy did. I was very conservative till my early 20s… even voted for that Skeksi Howard once upon a time! Then I became disabled and saw for myself how nasty the government of the day was to the disadvantaged, and was forced to rethink my views on a lot of issues. I tend to view conservatism as a delusion that can only be cured for many people when they are forced to see how people outside the white picket fence live.
OMG, instead of focusing on boat people, why aren’t our pollies trying to stop the insidious flow of vuvuzelas into our country?! Someone stop the horns! But if you can’t find one, just get a bee hive. They sound the same and will have the same effect on your daughter.
That’s it in a nutshell, Richie. Until the merde contacts the personal fan, people go on their merry solipsistic way. If just once a day (instead of once every blue moon) we could recall the old Biblical exhortation to do unto others the world would be vastly different.
Thwarted thus far in my search for a vuvuzela. Wife threatens to leave if I’m successful.