In the long run, tonight's anguish in Brazil (losing 7-1 to Germany in the semi-finals) will turn out to be more good than bad. Brazil's self-esteem, as this blog has often noted, needs to rest on firmer foundations than sport and samba. Combined with the street protests preceding the world cup, tonight's humiliation will force Brazilians to confront everyday realities with a new vigour and candour.
And hopefully the economy, education and societal advances will all receive a huge boost from this darkest hour before the dawn. Brazil, a country which has never experienced the trauma of war, but instead has fought an unending internal war, now has its own ground zero from which to rebuild and reinvent.
There was a Brazil before futebol and there will be a Brazil after futebol. Football will still be important, as it is in so many other countries, but it needs to be just one of many things in which Brazilians take pride. For the past half century it has been too much of an opiate, used to distract the masses from far more pressing issues.
Update: "Antonio Hipolito, who lives in Rio, said: "I hope this can make people wake up and start thinking with their heads and not their emotions and that people translate the anger they are feeling at the ballot boxes. 'Soccer is just an illusion and we need to wake up to reality.'"
And hopefully the economy, education and societal advances will all receive a huge boost from this darkest hour before the dawn. Brazil, a country which has never experienced the trauma of war, but instead has fought an unending internal war, now has its own ground zero from which to rebuild and reinvent.
There was a Brazil before futebol and there will be a Brazil after futebol. Football will still be important, as it is in so many other countries, but it needs to be just one of many things in which Brazilians take pride. For the past half century it has been too much of an opiate, used to distract the masses from far more pressing issues.
Update: "Antonio Hipolito, who lives in Rio, said: "I hope this can make people wake up and start thinking with their heads and not their emotions and that people translate the anger they are feeling at the ballot boxes. 'Soccer is just an illusion and we need to wake up to reality.'"
A football score no matter how dramatic is not going to see widespread social change. An uneducated populace lacks the sophistication to engender real change in view of a corrupt and kleptocratic political class. Real change comes not from the laces of a German boot, but from meaningful social progress.
ReplyDeletePerhaps my comment entered into the spirit of World Cup hyperbole: obviously football ain't *that* important. But equally you are overstating your case when you say that nothing will ever change. Brazil *is* changing, albeit at a snail's pace. I suspect the World Cup disappointment will be another push in the right direction, that's all.
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