On the Super Bowl: I think it could be argued that the whole thing [View all]

[go west young man]

was a bombastic piece of poetic justice and somewhat fits where America is "at" right now. The Super Bowl, like many things in our society, has become just another opportunity to squeeze as much cash out of a duped populace as possible. That is proven literally in the fact that the game is no longer as important as the commercials that are shown. Even websites that used to be reputed for substance, such as CNET, chime on and on about the cost of the commercials. It speaks incredibly loudly about what we value as a society. We are watered down, lacking depth and substance, and digitized.

It's been reported that Beyonce's rehearsals also caused the lights to go out. The million dollar light show was most likely the cause of the power outage which leads one to ask "is it possible we demand too much to be entertained?" I saw a lot of lights and a lot of leg and not much else. Where was the emotion? Where was the connection that music is supposed to bring? Where were the goosebumps that come from hearing the greatest singers amongst us? They were not on that stage and that is what's sad and says so much about us.

We as a society have become sanitized with generic American Idol singers who all sound the same. In these days of digitally compressed everything we have lost our uniqueness and our ability to just be and breathe. That is why the bombast is there. To cover up the fact that there is no emotional connection. There is no substance.

Another thing that comes to mind is that the Super Bowl is in and of itself a microcosm of the larger game of war. And we are a warring nation that is now reflecting on a decade of war and confusion in regards to why we fight. I find it ironic that after the lights went out because the "show" was too bombastic, the other team very nearly won the "game." (For those not in the know Google Rudyard Kipling The Great Game) I know my analogy is a touch extreme but American football as a whole must be a psychologist favorite sport to analyze. And don't get me started on the homosexual undertones that exist with terms like "wide receivers", "tightends", and "fullbacks". Or is it just me thinking these things! Ha!

Nonetheless it's a violent sport that mirrors war and taking territory while throwing bombs and gaining ground with a lot of ass slapping. All the while we cheer like good Romans and gather the next day at the water cooler or on Facebook and pontificate loudly about what took place. That's entertainment!

And that entertainment keeps us happy. Blinded but happy or so it would seem. The Super Bowl is the respite from the problems we face as a nation. It's part of our national consciousness. A reason not to dwell on what plagues us. On one positive note ( I don't have too many) the Sandy Hook children were there reminding us of who we are and what we currently stand for and need to change. Their presence was definitely the highlight for me. Apart from that it was business as usual.

To me the superficialness of the half time show is a chance to look inward and ask ourselves what are we really about. Everything is digital, everything is similar, everything is in "your" face. But what I think is lacking and what the world needs to see from us is the putting aside of our American ego. The world doesn't want us to be louder or more nationalistic. It wants us to focus inward to think, to feel, to understand compassion and emotion. We needed a half time show that shows we are human beings and not automatons. We need songs on the scale of "Imagine" sung by maybe a Mary J. Blige (who incidentally has real soul) or a Teo Torriatte (obscure Queen song about togetherness for those not familiar)Instead we had the bombast and the power outage. We had poetic justice. That's what I saw. Here's to hoping next year is better.