(04-11-2014 11:28 AM)Smaug Wrote: When you're a pathetic loser, and the one thing you have to be proud of is your association with success, no matter how tenuous or tangential, you become a fanatic.
Know this about the state of Alabama: It's consistently bottom 5 in most quality-of-life metrics, but always near the top in one thing: by-gawd footbawl.
And if that's your one, shiny, pretty thing in a swamp of stupid, you'll use whatever resource you have to nurture and protect it.
We have religion in Alabama. Everywhere else, they call it "football".
Well what do you call it at U.S.C., Ohio State, Penn State, North Carolina, etc. etc? I agree it is way out of kilter in the state of Alabama, but I've lived in other parts of the country where its manifestation was just as corrupt but its expression more befitting the locale.
The issue here is much much broader than the state of Alabama. The issue here is the average American's complacent acceptance of corruption at every level of their lives. There is payola in business, the lobby of big business for tax breaks that affect Mom & Pop and cost the poor more at the cash register and in employment opportunities, the level of corruption that forces the public to pay the losses of the most corrupt of the large banks, the corruption over pork barrel deals in the House and Senate and the collusion it takes between parties and representatives and senators to pull it off.
At the local level is the acceptance that the wealthiest of the local people will control the contracts for the school board and city services like in Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis and other cities you would know about where millions are spent but nothing is done.
The issue here is just how freaking sad it is that the only ***** session that gets started is when someone thinks corruption gives their rival an advantage in by God football and from the discussion on this board I'd say that is universal and nationwide.
My question is why are we quibbling over corruption in sports when sports is only part of the trickle down lower rung of corruption within society as a whole. The hypocritical part of this whole thread is that once again Americans have picked a scapegoat for what is a much more pervasive part of their culture which they for selfish reasons don't desire to address.
I've followed realignment from a sociological perspective as much as for entertainment. For me it has been from the beginning a challenge to see how long it took my average countrymen to figure out that it is just another facet of their lives being taken from them by corporate America, and taken for profit. The cheating is a byproduct of the money. The money comes from television networks that have a ready made, compelling, cheap product that is easy to produce and packs whopping advertising profits. They will reap billions while the schools reap millions, while the coaches earn a few million, while the players get thousands, while the fans who will earn less than the best players and somewhat more than the average players will rob their children's education to claim to be part of something their fellow fans celebrate. And folks that happens in the North, the South, the East, and the West.
The country has lost its moral moorings and instead of addressing that beginning with ourselves and organizing with our neighbors to stop it in our neighborhoods, and then cities, and then states, and then nation, we gripe on a message board and think we've done something. And that's why we will continue to suffer. We think one voice can't stop the roar of corruption. Well it takes the collective voices of millions of pissed off Americans to do it. It just seems to be too big and too dangerous for anyone to take on. Too big because it costs lots of money to be heard and too dangerous because most of our family members now work for corporations associated with the corruption at the highest level and everyone fears losing their job. And that is where they have our gonads in a vice.
But the reality is much simpler. Change your town or city. Enough changed towns and cities will change states. Enough states can change the nation. But as long as you resort to labeling and belittling other regions of the country you will have accomplished nothing but the work of those who divide you in the first place.
Almost 40 years ago a governor told me there was no difference in republicans and democrats and that liberal issue versus conservative issue were just the issues du jour for the ignorant masses to rally around so that nobody challenged the big business as usual of the corporate ranks who lobby for treaties that supersede your constitutional guarantees and who lobby for nominations to the court for the purpose of gaining favorable interpretations of those laws (like imminent domain). As long as you are divided along racial, religious, liberal or conservative lines on social issues, and focused on football nothing will change. And that viewpoint is winning hands down because we choose to fight among ourselves rather than to organize against the real foes of our children's futures.
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Meet the Bag Man - how SEC programs cheat like hell and get away with it
