Another “World Championship” (2014, Spain) is over. Our athletes achieved another “great success”. Another “spectacular welcoming party for our champions” was staged. We experienced one more gush of euphoria…
What indeed happened? Who indeed are the actual winners and who are the losers?
Our ‘‘opponents’‘ are not the black children from the American ghettoes; nor the Brazilian youth who fled the muddy favelas; nor the Algerian boys from poor communities in French towns… They are but a decoy on which we can ‘‘sharpen our teeth’‘ and get relief from our own misery. The victories of ‘‘our’‘ gladiators and circus players on the sports grounds serve to compensate for our everyday defeats.
Sports shows are nothing but a spectacular sham.
The oppressed working ‘‘masses’‘ got another illusion, another bone to chew on, whereas those who rule and plunder bought themselves time to continue their criminal activities in the shadow of sports spectacles. The real winners are the capitalists, corrupted and alienated politicians, mafia gangs who hold a grip on sport… Athletes are paid by those who rob workers of their money, by those who are our masters…
To claim that victories of our athletes at international sports competitions boost the morale of our people is utter nonsense. Victories at sports competitions have never incited the oppressed to fight for their human and civil rights. On the contrary: victories at sports fields only served to strengthen the position of the ruling class. This is the main reason why global rulers are so interested in increasing the number of increasingly bloody sports spectacles. The dissatisfaction of the oppressed working layers is thereby diverted and workers and their children are turned into a depoliticised ‘‘crowd’‘. It should be pointed out that the stadium was created in the second half of 19th century in England, when the workers won the 8 hour working day and their non-working time had to be ‘‘colonized’‘ in order to prevent them from becoming class-conscious and from fighting for their workers’‘ and human rights.
When the dazzling dust of the ‘‘victorious’‘ euphoria settles down, people will face the true results of the ‘‘great sports victory’‘: the few remaining bookshops will be closed and new betting shops opened, whose toxic stench is rotting our young generation; basking in the ‘‘sporting glory’‘ and carried away by dreams of ‘‘big money’‘ an increasing number of young people will discard the book and ruin themselves at the sports grounds; instead of schools and theatres, new, ever more spacious stadiums and sports centres will be built – for an increasing number of impoverished people…
Over one fourth of Serbian population is illiterate and almost a half has only primary education. The sad truth is that ‘‘our intelligentsia’‘ is not bothered by the fact that the entire Serbian culture receives less money from the state than a ‘‘better’‘ basketball or football player receives for a contract – the money that will not be taxed!
Instead of fighting against fake ‘‘opponents’‘ on sports fields, we should fight against our real opponents. Those opponents are capitalist gangs and politicians who are ruining our country; who have sold Kosovo; who are paving the way for secession of other parts of our territory; who are pushing us into the European Union and NATO; who allow American capitalists to spray us like insects and contaminate our soil and water; who are ruining the family, culture, our libertarian dignity; who are trying to reduce our Mother-Serbia to a submissive whore of capitalist clans who govern Europe and America…
They are our true opponents and they are the ones we should fight against!
Translated from Serbian by Vesna Petrović (Todorović)
