Monday, November 22, 2004

Unrest Growing

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. civil rights leader

Why are U.S. sports looking like European and South American soccer matches? Within the past two months, there have been riots or near riots in the baseball playoffs, the basketball game Friday night between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons and the college football game Saturday between Clemson and South Carolina. The Misanthrope just viewed the basketbrawl game between the Pacers and the Pistons and make no mistake it was ugly. Most frightening about this episode of sports is that The Misanthrope believes it is the tip of the iceberg of society as a whole as more unrest from fans who take out their frustrations about jobs, health care, politics, finances, and other areas of discontent come to the surface. As one sees now, the slightest provocation will set off sports fans, eventually this exasperation will spread to other areas. Look at the freeways, road rage is common, destruction of property occurs regularly, but not yet, routinely outside sports finales Boston celebrating the World Series and major political meetings, recall Seattle during the World Trade meetings a few years back.

The Misanthrope believes this dissatisfaction is just an early symptom of more challenges as the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen.

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