[F]or the most part football these days is the opium of the people, not to speak of their crack cocaine. Its icon is the impeccably Tory, slavishly conformist Beckham. The Reds are no longer the Bolsheviks. Nobody serious about political change can shirk the fact that the game has to be abolished. And any political outfit that tried it on would have about as much chance of power as the chief executive of BP has in taking over from Oprah Winfrey.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes football as a distraction from important political issues, equating its popularity to that of drugs.
In this quote, Terry Eagleton expresses a strong critical perspective on football, suggesting that it serves as a numbing agent for the masses, similar to addictive substances like opium or crack cocaine. He implies that the obsession with football diverts attention from necessary political change and reinforces a status quo that benefits those in power, highlighting the conformity represented by iconic figures like David Beckham. Eagleton ultimately argues that any serious political movements that seek to challenge this dynamic would struggle to gain traction in a world so captivated by the sport.
In practice
In a discussion about how sports can sometimes distract from political activism.
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All communication involves faith; indeed, some linguisticians hold that the potential obstacles to acts of verbal understanding are so many and diverse that it is a minor miracle that they take place at all.
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You have to assemble your life yourself - action by action.
This brings me back to the image of Kafka standing before a fish in the Berlin aquarium, a fish on which his gaze fell in a newly found peace after he decided not to eat animals. Kafka recognized that fish as a member of his invisible family- not as his equal, of course, but as another being that was his concern.
Live in the present moment. The past and future are nonexistent. Only the present can be grasped or, better, embraced.
The star of revolution will rise high above the streets of Moscow, from a sea of blood and fire, and turn into a lodestar to lead a liberated humanity
Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear useless, but put together, they represent a beautiful history to the eye.
War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.
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