Didn’t think you were being literal. Orwell afterall was a socialist warning in 1984 (and Animal Farm) about totalitarianism coming from the Left, as exemplified by Stalin’s Russia.
At the extremes the Left and Right merge. Both extremes believe in Conspiracies that control “the masses”. Both therefore reject the will of the general public. Both are ultimately anti-democracy.
Yes, and they use the same tools.
Didn’t your high school have “pep rallies”? Mine sure did. All the students would be herded into the auditorium. The football coach would walk on stage, met by everyone jumping to their feet, cheering and applauding. He would speak about why it was so important to beat the other school. His comments would be met with thunderous applause. The cheerleaders would run on stage and go through their routines as the students recited the school cheers. Then they would lead the students in the school song. That is indoctrination just as surely as the stuff the Baptist lodge laid on me, just as surely as the “three minutes hate” and “hate week”.
Steve
Sure. But my high school also had “classes” where hours were spent every day teaching academic subjects. And it turns out that success in high school was much more dependent on doing homework than attending pep rallies. Imagine that! That was the primary meme being indoctrinated. We also read books like Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Catcher in the Rye, which for many was their first introduction to racism and challenging the status quo.
School was also the first time many got to meet peers of different ethnicities, religions, socio-economic levels, etc. Public schools are more likely to challenge orthodoxy than indoctrinate. That’s the real reason schools and education are so feared by the religious right.
The power of pep rallies peaked in the 1950’s. Vietnam changed attitudes, permanently it seems. I’ve been to a couple of recent pep rallies because of my kids. The level of cynicism and disengagement among the students watching was pretty high. Most were looking at their phones texting and playing Pokemon.
Cis-boom-bah.
How do you square your observations with football TV ratings?
Steve
Oh, I can think of lots of reasons why football viewing might be increasing in the short term, like the growing number of retirees with big screen TVs who have a lot of time on their hands. But that isn’t the right stat to look at.
The important numbers are that big time sports (even the NFL) appear to be losing young viewers and that fewer kids are playing organized tackle football.
NFL viewership fluctuates depending on the storylines, (is Taylor Swift in the stadium?) but the overall trend over the last decade or so is downward.
Meanwhile youth participation in tackle football is also on the decline.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-01-24/youth-football-participation-declining-amid-safety-concerns#:~:text=In%202021-22%2C%20around%208%2C500,11-player%20high%20school%20level.
Generation Z in particular seems to be far less interested in organized sports than past generations. Why Do So Many Young Americans Hate Sports? - InsideHook
Perhaps more pep rallies are needed…?
My question to you is how do you explain the below graph given your high school indoctrination theory. Traditional high school football peaked way back in 2008. Coincidentally, the iphone was first released in 2007.
I think I posted recently, that on one recent Saturday, I counted 13 college football games being broadcast, and that was only over the air channels. not cable or streaming. You could plop down on the sofa, and watch football for ten hours straight, without even changing the channel…
Taylor Swift’s publicity machine seems to run full throttle 24/7. Could this be a well compensated scheme to try and make football more appealing to younger generations?
That would be the “traditional family values” approach: cram more football down their throats. After all, TPTB have a lot invested in football. Can’t let that investment become stranded, just because people aren’t buying the hype anymore,
Keep in mind, I am really old, graduated High School in 1971. The kids in high school and college now are the grandchildren of my generation.
Steve…circuses, more circuses, but no free bread, that would be Communistical.
I think the Boston U chronic traumatic encephalopathy center confirmed that about 345 out of 376 dead nfl football players had CTE. But there is big money in pro football for the owners and players. As a liberal with a libertarian streak, I can sort of see how we might allow grown men to accept a high probability of permanent and severe brain damage for huge amounts of money. Maybe even college despite the fact that most of them will be damaged and not see the money.
But high school kids? I am glad I was too small and too slow to play college football and I am glad my daughters are requiring my grandchildren to pick some other sport.
And my born back in the early 1920’s parents were somehow crystal clear about the dangers to the brain of football and utterly forbade siblings and me from playing tackle football back in the 50’s and 60’s. It was one of their few absolute prohibitions.
d fb
Can someone indoctrinated in the football culture at a young age, with his parents pushing him to play, because they too were indoctrinated in the football culture, and he discovered that playing meant he was not required to do much schoolwork to be passed, really making a well informed decision? The guy is not making the decision at 20 or 21, but at 12 or 13, and receiving a great deal of societal pressure, when they start on the football development path. In the new study, the youngest case with detectable CTE died at 17, brain damaged before he was old enough to start college.
Every sport had a degree of danger. I saw a pole vaulter overshoot the box full of chunks of foam rubber he was supposed to land on, and hit his head on the rigid edge of the box. He was out cold. But in football, crashing into each-other is a fundamental part of the game.
Steve
Yes, I can also see the argument that tackle football is an inherently dangerous sport and that juveniles should be prohibited from playing - like smoking, drinking, etc. but it is too deeply ingrained in our culture for that to happen any time soon. I was pleased to see that fewer than one million high school boys played tackle football last year and that the number is still dropping. Football is such a big part of college culture that I doubt it will end in my lifetime. Even in our household Ispouse watches her favorite college team on fall Saturdays.
A truly successful, multi-generation, indoctrination program. Thoroughly indoctrinated parents can push their kids into Pee Wee football at five. When they age out of Pee Wee at 12, they are fed into the public school indoctrination program. I remember the indoctrination starting when I entered Jr High at 7th grade. Things are really stacked against the kids having any chance to think for themselves. It is heartening to see that some manage to break out of the indoctrination, but I would not bet on TPTB letting that trend continue.
Steve
This is the slow season due to the lack of new shows, of all types, as a result of the strikes against the studios, etc. So, these are filler games for time that would otherwise be wasted–and advertisers want to be SEEN.
I would love for ALL sports broadcasting be restricted to “sports only” channels and let the other channels do as they wish–without sports.
We recommended band to our kids. You can hang with all of the sports kids but injuries were minimal 
'38Packard
Here’s what Demetri Martin said:
{ I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I’m good at everything. }
Demetri Martin
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/demetri_martin_414427
ralph
College football is digging its own grave. The top college football powers are all joining a small number of super conferences. Only the biggest colleges can afford the top coaches. The top players can now make money through endorsements, hence they all want to go to schools with the highest visibility. Late bloomers in smaller schools can now enter the transfer portal to cash in with the big football powers.
What all this means is that the college game is becoming increasingly top heavy, with a few schools with an enormous amount of talent and a diminished product everywhere else. Coaches and the best players have no loyalty to a school, they are all going to the highest bidder. The current popularity of the college game is based on a memory of how college athletics used to be and no longer is.
My prediction is that the popularity of the college game will disappear with the Boomer generation. This is already happening. Prior to the disruption of the pandemic, college football attendance has been in a steady decline.
Usually, our society would deny them otherwise.
