It's
said that politics don’t mix well with … pretty much anything, really, except more politics.
Whether they are from the realm of music, religion, or sports, for many,
hearing nonpolitical figures express their political views is mentally
distressing. How many times have you heard someone say that they’d like U2, if
they’d “just stick to the music”? Musical taste and specifics of politics
aside, at least U2 has the guts to provide the public with a point of view, and
to challenge their fans to critically engage with their universe.
However,
those who believe that musicians, athletes, and other entertainment celebrities
should “stick to music” (or whatever their area is) are under a misconception.
The music/movies/athletes that they consider to be apolitical quite simply are
not, because there is no such thing as being apolitical. Those that are
perceived this way are merely acquiescing to the current norms and social
values of their art and of their society.
Canadians
would appear to prefer their national pastime – hockey – this way as well.
Apart from xenophobic boors such as Don Cherry, hockey players and others
connected to hockey have, for the most part, remained apolitical. Most recently,
Tim Thomas, of the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, was skewered by the
Boston media for declining to visit the White House in the annual event
commemorating the cup winning team.
“I
believe the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the
rights, liberties, and property of the people,” he said, in a statement to the
media. “Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a free citizen,
and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party … both parties are responsible
for the situation we are in as a country.”
While
Thomas, who is believed to be a Tea Party supporter, and other athletes such as
Muhammed Ali need to be commended for taking a stand for what they believe in
(Ali was not only a boxing maverick in his day, but was one of the most
important people in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements), their critics
labour under the fallacious notion that, without these politically-minded
athletes, sports are inherently non-political.
This
is, in fact, the way that they are presented to the public. It would appear that
the extent of political controversy in NHL hockey would be the length of
suspensions given to players who commit infractions, and/or the occasional
lockout/conflict by the NHL Player’s Assocation and the league.
Thomas’
conspicuous absence from the White House also lays bare the question – what in
the world does a visit by a sports team have to do with Obama stewarding the
American state? Clearly this has nothing to do with good governance, and all to
do with garnering favourable press for the President by tying his image with
the goodwill of champion athletes. Stephen Harper employs a similar tactic – in
an effort to not come across as the cold and calculating politician that he
actually seems to be, he makes every effort to have his picture taken at hockey
games, in between cat inspired photo shoots and singing Beatles songs.
However,
these are merely simple examples of a complex problem. Despite the so-called
“non-political” nature of professional sports, politicians have often sought to
tie not only their personal public image, as noted above, but also their
broader ideology with the sports teams that have captured people’s hearts. They
recognize the inherent cultural (and political) influence of sport, especially
as captured by the all-pervading modern media machine.
“Historians
have long known that you can learn alot about the wider culture by looking at
sports culture,” said Dave Zirin, sports writer with the Nation. “Sports have always had an
important social function … Sports culture shapes cultural attitudes, norms,
and power arrangements.”
One
of the most notable instances of sports being used to advance a political
ideology was at the 1936 Olympics, which was widely noted as being the
coming-out party for the Nazis on the world stage. Hans von Tschammer, head of
the Reich sports office, believed sports to be a "way to weed out the
weak, Jewish, and other undesirables."
On
a very abstract level, professional competitive sport is one of the most pure
and perfect reinforcements of the modern military/capitalist state that we live
in. Although it is often said that the concept of “competition” is a natural
state for humans, this concept can be considered capitalist propaganda in
itself, competition being the central ethos of capitalism.
Ljubodrag
Simonovic, a Yugoslavian philosopher and former star athlete, called sport the
“religion of capitalism,” and writes, “It is [in sport] that the contest comes
down to a struggle for survival and domination which is completely in line with
the dominant spirit of capitalism: the stronger go on, the weaker are
eliminated. The purpose of sport is not the development of play, but the
preservation of the ruling order.”
Militarism,
an ideology that is essential to the modern nation-state, also ties in neatly
to competitive sport. In both, the themes of masculinity and dominance over
one’s opponent are conveniently given central roles in the narrative.
Professional sports culture often appropriates the language of the military
(ie. referring to soldiers as athletes), with the implication being that “going
to war” is inherently an honourable occupation.
Clearly,
sports and politics are already deeply intertwined in a way that seems
completely normal and natural. Those that point this contradiction out are the
ones that are accused of “bringing politics into it.”
While
professional sports in Canada aren’t as stridently politicized as they are in
the U.S., hockey, the national pastime, is becoming increasingly moreso, on
many tangible levels. Consider the new logo of the Winnipeg Jets, which is
extremely similar to the former logo of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The
Canadian Forces actually helped design it, as well – the kind of publicity in a
hockey town that you can’t replicate with a typical ad campaign.
The
CBC has played its part as well in slipping military propaganda into your
hockey kool-aid: in 2010, Hockey Night in Canada had Don Cherry and Minister
Peter Mckay head to Afghanistan, where Cherry even fired a live artillery
round, saying, “Take that, Taliban.”
Despite
the “non-political” nature of professional sports, just like most all other
types of mass media entertainment, it comes embedded with deeply political
messages that construct and inform our cultural and societal norms (and surely,
not all of them are objectionable). However, as consumers of mass media
entertainment, we must remain critical, and deconstruct what these messages are
that are being embedded in our seemingly innocuous sports, movies, and music.
//Gurpreet Kambo, news editor
//Graphics by Stefan Tosheff
//Gurpreet Kambo, news editor
//Graphics by Stefan Tosheff
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