Am I missing out on the World Cup? |
England are to face Argentina tonight in the semi-finals of the World Cup. But I won’t be looking in.
I’ve always liked to join in with big significant communal events, even if only at a televisual distance. They count for much more nowadays, when collective experiences – even virtual ones – are so much scarcer. We are rarely all on the same page in the 2020s; film, television and pop music have splintered into thousands of jagged shards.
I don’t look down on sport – but I just don’t feel it
I don’t look down on sport – but I just don’t feel it
What else is left but sport? Only really the big news stories, and those are hardly ever good news. We could perhaps revel in the excitement of Andy Burnham’s accession – but that is something only starry-eyed Labour MPs, and absolutely nobody else in the country, think is going to be anything but a disaster. Big sporting occasions are all that really remain of the positive uniting events that used to be ten a penny.
But sport in general, and football in particular, has always been a mystery to me. Sport is obviously a valuable diversion. It seems such an important part of being a human, and I sometimes feel I must really be missing out. Yes, it’s a case of different strokes for different........