Uncommon commotion

We had a point today where loads of people stopped what they were doing, stared at their phones and then started muttering to each other in hushed tones. I thought there must have been a big terror attack somewhere, or an attempted assassination.

It turned out to be the announcement of England’s football World Cup squad. Forgive me for not collapsing with excitement.

The company are starting to ramp up the in-store special-event BUY ALL THIS SHIT OR YOU’RE NOT PATRIOTIC advertising to convince sports fan to try and out-do each other with displaying their love of England. The whole thing is lost on me, but it means we’ll sell a lot more alcohol for a month or so, and we’ll be really quiet at the times that our national team are playing.

It’s a strange thing ‘The World Cup.’ All the excitement of the Olympics without the variety. One game, that most of us are already sick of, being played more often than usual and splattered all over the TV at the expense of other programming. Not that I watch much television anyway, but still – there are principles involved. All the newspapers are getting into a tizz about ‘supporter safety’ in Russia, just like they were concerned about it in Brazil four years ago. It’s almost as if they churn out the same old shit over and over again when circumstances warrant, rather than rely on proper journalism and actual ‘news.’

I’m going to stop thinking about it now. I don’t like football and yet I’m being sucked into a debate of my own creation. There are far more enjoyable, more intellectual pursuits to spend time on. Like dominoes.

RC 16-5-18