Through Gritted Teeth #29: Sam Allardyce
July 19, 2011 § 2 Comments
by Chris Mann
The most wonderful thing about human emotion is its dizzying complexity. It is, of course, completely possible for us to harbour two apparently oppositional feelings towards one individual; to love and to hate in the very same instant. We are able to cultivate dislike towards an object/individual/institution without being restricted from expressing a simultaneous respect for it, our minds apparently happy to host confusing dichotomies of feeling, entanglements of polarised passions. « Read the rest of this entry »
How strange, innocence
January 7, 2011 § 2 Comments
The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance
– John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
One of life’s finer pleasures is to watch a football match behind the veil of ignorance, in a state of grace.This is to watch a game unfold knowing nothing: not the form of the players, the history of the manager, the rivalry between the teams, the competitive context, the name of the mascot, nothing. It is to see the game entirely without prejudice. It is a liberating experience.
Obviously, the more football you follow, the harder it becomes to escape your own knowledge (though Vietnam-Malaysia a month or so back was excellent). However, the state of grace is also valuable as a thought experiment. Watch any game about which you have prior knowledge, but consider nothing but what you see happening in front of you: the football, the whole football, and nothing but the football. (So help me Eric.)
With this in mind, consider Liverpool’s recent defeat to Blackburn. Bear in mind that, in a self-imposed state of grace, this is not a team in crisis; this is not a manager clinging on by his well-chewed nails; this is not a side that used to win the league quite a lot twenty-odd years ago; this is not a clutch of heavily-remunerated internationals. This is 11 men in red, playing 11 men in blue-and-white halves, and that’s it. So why did the men in red lose? « Read the rest of this entry »
