The World Cup Final

(Le Pain Quotidian in Armenia, 13 July 2014)

The defeat in the Falklands conflict has put an end to the dictatorship that bet on the success of its military campaign. Lives improved.

The defeat in the World Cup Final is not an analogous blessing in disguise. However much governments may wish to deploy football as the opium of the people, national teams are not government-led. A national team is an enterprise of a couple of dozen of Everyman capable of rallying near-universal support. A national team gives its people the confidence that they are substantial enough to make democracy work.

Football is a zero-sum game most of the time; it indulges the instinct not only to do well, but also to crush others. Art may directly or indirectly cater to the desire to crush in its narrative. If the high from the crush is sought also in art creation, art becomes sport. If a player plays a game that is richer than the one narrowly prescribed by the rules, his sport becomes art. When guided by intelligence and the passion to create---not the mere instinct to crush---a sport acquires a narrative and becomes positive-sum.

Sport is not about learning to lose. Life delivers numerous opportunities to practice that. (Besides, winning is the hard part.) Sport teaches how to take responsibility while the game is still being played.