Life of a loser

[degringolade]

 

Shōwa period (1926–1989) / Asano Takeji/ Kinomastushima

Probably one of the best “life experiences” I have ever had was my junior year in high school’s football season.  I had already been a starter for a year and we sucked the prior year, and we had high hopes for a great season.  

Man we sucked.  

Now, it wasn’t for lack of trying.  There was no lack of self-confidence and we all firmly believed we would win the next game.  

1-9

We won the last game against the league champions because they got lazy and we had nothing to lose.  Made things a little better, but that 1-9 thing just hung around up there on the recond board.  

Senior year was an advance into mediocrity.  Five and five seemed pretty sweet at the time.  

Now, you might want to wonder where all this woolgathering is going.  I am thinking that the way that the ethos of games in America has infected the body politic.  In the long ago, we stilled sneered at losers, but we at least tried for some sportsmanship.  The old saw about “Not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game” still had some scraps of meaning.

Fast forward fifty years.  Taunting and trash talk define the game as much as a greatly improved level of play.  I truly believe that this is also the way of the political arena and the general population.  The political system seems to take the idea that “winner take all” attitude and veers back and forth between the competing concerns of the corporate overlords.  The general population segregates itself into winners and losers and the elites sneer at the lower class and build their gated communities and redoubts to keep “those people” out. 

Nope, we aren’t one country any longer, truth be told, we haven’t been for a while.  All we have is winners looking down on losers in a rigged game.