Bankers mess up an entire global financial system and what's the level of reaction we get? Sorry..can't really hear you people. A little louder please. Half-hearted calls for punishments and lazy ripples of insistence on retribution carry around the more concerned global citizen-ville. Couple of old corrupt codgers mess around with football though and what do we get?.. a mightily thunderous global synchronised boom of, "NOOOO..by the wrath of Thor!!". Wow, corruption is allegedly (really Sherlock..you think?) within the midst of the most seemingly sacred of human endeavours and the entire global population goes into acute psychogenic shock! The antichrist that (for now) is Sepp Blatter has awoken a primeval monster within us all.
Mess with football, mess with the world it appears. Hold on a minute here..the last four years have witnessed allegations and confessions of near unprecedented levels of highly damaging, immoral and almost immeasurable levels of financial carnage at the hands of the filthiest bankers and traders we were silly enough to entrust with economically vital elements such as Libor and mortgages. What has been the public response and mainstream media coverage? Highly vitriolic and expressing charged furious emotion at first yet worryingly apathetic of recent. What has been the public outrage and emotional disgust directed toward these oh-so-guilty Zegna-suited criminals?..apart from a few squatters messing about in Central London and Manhattan, with one or two scapegoated individuals being hauled in front of an irate judge..a grand total of 1 (that's right ONE) perpetrator behind bars.
The entire basis of our modern existence threatened, built on excess and the spending of money we did not have, the resulting retribution is a muted open hand light slap on the backside. Corrupt practice in football? A brain-damaging knockout blow from the U.S.'s most powerful heavyweight legal force has landed right on the chin of FIFA. Priorities? Go figure.
Surely corruption rife in the once trusted slippery hands of the world's financial elite would overshadow any other acts of lesser immoral practices? Worrying about what seems less significant is common for this modern, frivolous and shallow world you might say. It is not really. Throughout history the masses have been placated and manipulated with the use of games and sporting replacements for destructive wars, allowed to unleash their inherent bloodthirst for violence in relatively controlled environments, known as sporting arenas. Coincidentally, rulers, Emperors and dictators alike have used such large-scale sporting events at times their hold on the masses appeared somewhat wobbly. From the great Gladiatorial coliseums to state-of-the-art modern stadia, our species has intricately destroyed itself through the ages, for the modest price of an entrance fee and something to nibble on.
Is corruption simply inherent in our very genetic code? Violence definitely is. One could argue violence and corruption are inextricably linked. Only today an announcement of the "first example of violence in our species" was presented from examination of two ancient skeletons (discovered a few years back in Spain and believed to be 430,000 years old) with killer blows made to the skull so similar they must have been made intentionally. An act of violence as far back as we have been understood to exist. We may have not been so simply "chosen" either. Our DNA is based on millions and millions of years of evolution (Scientologists - we haven't got time to discuss your theories right now sorry). Recent findings and studies have now begun to understand that where we once believed our particular strand of species (the humble Homo Sapiens) was unique in its time of existence and hence destined to rise to the top of the fraught evolutionary ladder, there were possibly several parallel Homo-species living simultaneously. Think about that. Violence and the presence of several most likely competing similar species. Only one survived. Yep, your thoughts have led you to the correct conclusion..we (Homo Sapiens that is) murdered our way to the top. Real-life "Dynasty" drama of our history.
Is it really any wonder then that our genetic code has unleashed itself once more? Corruption is in our every neolithic bone (every pun intended). It has manifested on this occasion in a "game", affecting our basest sensitivities. It may well be that first act of violence in Spain 430k years ago was an offside decision gone a little wrong! Clearly there is no way absolute corruption in the financial world, bringing our entire banking system to its knees and still now wreaking havoc on global nations' economies, can compete with the horror of skull bashing corrupt football officials.
Mess with football, mess with the world it appears. Hold on a minute here..the last four years have witnessed allegations and confessions of near unprecedented levels of highly damaging, immoral and almost immeasurable levels of financial carnage at the hands of the filthiest bankers and traders we were silly enough to entrust with economically vital elements such as Libor and mortgages. What has been the public response and mainstream media coverage? Highly vitriolic and expressing charged furious emotion at first yet worryingly apathetic of recent. What has been the public outrage and emotional disgust directed toward these oh-so-guilty Zegna-suited criminals?..apart from a few squatters messing about in Central London and Manhattan, with one or two scapegoated individuals being hauled in front of an irate judge..a grand total of 1 (that's right ONE) perpetrator behind bars.
The entire basis of our modern existence threatened, built on excess and the spending of money we did not have, the resulting retribution is a muted open hand light slap on the backside. Corrupt practice in football? A brain-damaging knockout blow from the U.S.'s most powerful heavyweight legal force has landed right on the chin of FIFA. Priorities? Go figure.
Surely corruption rife in the once trusted slippery hands of the world's financial elite would overshadow any other acts of lesser immoral practices? Worrying about what seems less significant is common for this modern, frivolous and shallow world you might say. It is not really. Throughout history the masses have been placated and manipulated with the use of games and sporting replacements for destructive wars, allowed to unleash their inherent bloodthirst for violence in relatively controlled environments, known as sporting arenas. Coincidentally, rulers, Emperors and dictators alike have used such large-scale sporting events at times their hold on the masses appeared somewhat wobbly. From the great Gladiatorial coliseums to state-of-the-art modern stadia, our species has intricately destroyed itself through the ages, for the modest price of an entrance fee and something to nibble on.
Is corruption simply inherent in our very genetic code? Violence definitely is. One could argue violence and corruption are inextricably linked. Only today an announcement of the "first example of violence in our species" was presented from examination of two ancient skeletons (discovered a few years back in Spain and believed to be 430,000 years old) with killer blows made to the skull so similar they must have been made intentionally. An act of violence as far back as we have been understood to exist. We may have not been so simply "chosen" either. Our DNA is based on millions and millions of years of evolution (Scientologists - we haven't got time to discuss your theories right now sorry). Recent findings and studies have now begun to understand that where we once believed our particular strand of species (the humble Homo Sapiens) was unique in its time of existence and hence destined to rise to the top of the fraught evolutionary ladder, there were possibly several parallel Homo-species living simultaneously. Think about that. Violence and the presence of several most likely competing similar species. Only one survived. Yep, your thoughts have led you to the correct conclusion..we (Homo Sapiens that is) murdered our way to the top. Real-life "Dynasty" drama of our history.
Is it really any wonder then that our genetic code has unleashed itself once more? Corruption is in our every neolithic bone (every pun intended). It has manifested on this occasion in a "game", affecting our basest sensitivities. It may well be that first act of violence in Spain 430k years ago was an offside decision gone a little wrong! Clearly there is no way absolute corruption in the financial world, bringing our entire banking system to its knees and still now wreaking havoc on global nations' economies, can compete with the horror of skull bashing corrupt football officials.
