Re: [Marxism] Bonds Hits No. 756 to Break Hank Aaron's Record,

["David S. Leaton" <dsleaton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Garrr, a rare vomiting forth I must . . .

I find it somewhat disturbing that on a list dedicated to marxist analysis,
no one has yet explained why arguing over the legitimacy of a U.S.
professional sports league statistic in any way furthers the overall and
ongoing project of marxist analysis.  This seems to me to be the height of
bourgeois hopelessness.  Should we cheer when black, white, yellow, brown,
or whatever other category of children forego their educations (such as
those educations are where they are) to attempt to rise to the top of an
economic enterprise (MLB -- it is no business, nor does it produce any real
value) that will--if they are successful--use them to promote the
neo-liberal "American Dream" philosophy that serves to disinform people in
the U.S. and around the world?  Listen to these sports heroes as they try to
explain their lives and their economic prosperity, and you'll come to
understand how twisted and unexamined their lives are -- full of God
and Objectivist individualism.  Meanwhile, what kind of politics is promoted
within the extended micro-networks that surround these players?  What is a
professional sports league in the overall economic structure, anyway?  These
players have a union, but they produce nothing.  Many "feel bad" about their
collection of capital, and so they follow the example of capitalist
philanthropy, giving capital back to the community, back to the people from
whom it was scraped (they and their ancestors), and the players come off as
community heroes.

The analysis of steroid use should be obvious.  It is akin to the
environmental destruction taking place.  Anything to get ahead--or, indeed,
survive--in the market.  Steroids are simply one step in the historical
process of turning humans into pure capital-generating machines ("Well, if
he wants to have servos surgically implanted, that's his business, isn't it?
As long as it helps him hit home runs.").

As fans, we get caught up in the moment--we still have the human response to
the unlikely.  Note, though, the increasing number of second- and
third-generation MLB players, and the number of those players who take their
economic position for granted.  They no longer have that human
response, probably because they never were fans.  Their parent's income and,
especially, status taught them all they needed to know about surviving.  Ken
Griffey, Jr., is perhaps an exception, but then I've never spent any amount
of time around him, so I don't know if his appreciation for his position is
genuine.  What people don't like about Bonds is not his skin color; it's his
machine-like attitude.  He's stated over and over again that baseball isn't
a game for him; it's a business.  If he's telling the truth, then his going
after the record is purely in order to benefit him in the marketplace.
That's why he disgusts me, even as I understand that his material and
historical conditions could hardly have made him otherwise, and even as I
understand that what drives my disgust is my thoroughly middle-class worship
of professional sports, a worship that, like religious worship, makes me
feel attached to something powerful and absolute.  This whole thing reminds
me of The Fountainhead.

Anyway, cheer on and pedestalize if you like the idea of U.S. professional
sports being the beacon of light in Latin American cultures trying to
establish socialist production, but remember the politics that comes seeping
through the teats of that cash cow.

I must also note how many of those good sportswriters routinely promote U.S.
exceptionalism with regard to the "opportunities" MLB provides for foreign
players. And one more thing: there's a great deal more evidence for racism
with regards to Latino players and steroids, as a televised report recently
pointed out.  Then again, maybe the report was just part of the ongoing
"it's all criminal south of the border," Lou Dobbsian campaign to demonize a
left-shifting Latin America.

-- 
Dave Leaton
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism