A society given to brutality needs brutes. Doing very bad things to heads, especially the heads of children, will help that way. It’s not a coincidence that the great age of Roman plutocracy was also the great age of gladiators, or often deadly chariot races (see the movie Ben Hur as reference there! Chariot races craze replaced thoroughly the rest of Roman intellectual activity, all the way to the time, in the Seventh Century, when the Arab Muslims smashed the empire).
I always esteemed the boxer who grew up as Cassius Clay, who was buried today, after decades of neurological decay.
In spite of the fact he decided he would become a Muslim named Muhammad Ali (after the Prophet and his son-in-law and cousin). I have something against people who decides that pre-Medieval systems of thought can teach higher morality. But Ali fought against the Vietnam War. He caused a scandal by observing:”I have nothing against them, Vietcong”. Then he refused to be drafted, but did not flee the USA. At the time, March 1966, that was tantamount to treason.
Appearing for his ordered induction into the U.S. Armed Forces on April 28, 1967, in Houston, Ali refused three times to step forward at the call of his name. An officer warned him he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called. As a result, he was arrested. On the same day the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his world heavyweight champion title.
Bang Those Heads Hard, It’s Glorious. Ali Smashes Foreman’s Brains In Congo, Regaining (His) World Heavyweight Title.
Ali was denied a boxing licence in every American state, while his passport was confiscated. Thus Ali could not fight between the age of 25 and 29. By 1971, Ali’s position against the Vietnam War was widely shared, and courts started to reverse his conviction, and various official abuse he was submitted to. Thus Ali helped cognition in the US, and thus civilization, significantly.
The rest of Ali’s boxing career was glorious. However, thousands of blows to Ali’s head made him victim of a Parkinson-like disease. He just died from it. Ali recognized the nature of his disease, and its origin. His slightly younger brother, Rahman Ali, who, himself, had 20 strokes revealed years ago that his brother could barely speak and was unable to recognize him anymore.
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So Why Are So Many Children Forced Into Concussion Sports? Is Not That Child Abuse?
Cassius Clay started boxing at age 12. He died at 74, after years of increasing ailment from his concussion induced illness.
Some will say Clay/Ali had a great life, thanks to all these concussions (Ali himself said something not far from that). They could point to Paulson, once a professional football player, who became the chairman of Goldman Sachs, then, as had already happened with Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary. As such Paulson gave orders not just to the Republican candidate for the presidency, but also to Barack Obama, who agreed.
My thesis is this: great Lords need great brutes to implement their rule. A solution is to tape their heads, compress the forebrains, build super brutes this way. A number of tribes, countries, societies did this, including in the Americas.
Similarly, concussion sports help to decerebrate the individuals most lethal to established order; young males. Hence the popularity of American football, Hockey, all sports requiring helmets because of constant shocks,
Concussions are only part of the problem. Another is drug abuse, or even time abuse to entice children into competition sports. Much of this happens in many countries, not just Russia, but also the USA (remember BALCO?), where the empire is mighty and nasty. In Russia, the FSB, which used to be known as the KGB, where Putin made his career, all the way to the top, is apparently involved in filling up athletes with illicit drugs, to help Russia win lots of medals at the Olympics, and other international competitions.
The USA is better organized than that: the intelligence agencies are not involved with drugs that way (they have higher pursuits). No need. They prefer to be involved with the so-called “social networks”, which one should perhaps know as the “spy networks”.
So celebrate the Cassius Clay then known as Muhammad Ali. But remember what made him live, increasingly, over decades, more and more, him who like to talk so well, like a thoroughly boiled vegetable. What killed Ali was the love of a particular society for concussions, and all the sports bringing as much concussions, and horrendous abuse, as possible. Professional American football players have been reported to have very short lifespans and very bad neurological diseases (not just Parkinson, Alzheimer and AMLS…) The subject is rather controversial, but not new: a century ago, just for that reason, a serious effort was conducted to make American football unlawful. After all, gladiator combat is unlawful, even in the US.
In any case, all these spectacle sports teach by example. And the example concussion sports teach is that monstrosity pays. And it pays very well.
Patrice Ayme’
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 