SOCCER: China

From China, Paul Simon reports: "Soccer is the most popular sport in Mainland China, with basketball second. You can bet hundreds of millions here will watch the world cup, providing their team does well. There are soccer leagues and pro teams all over China!"The world cup show is of great historical importance. The world religions developed shrines like Mecca, which were divisive forces. Soccer has replaced religion, and there is a world soccer umma. Soccer may unify the world. The younger generation of Americans is soccer-minded. The soccer pilgrimage to Korea raises questions. South Korea has built a huge international airport at Inchon, a rather sleepy port when I visited it. How could an estimated 300,000 people afford the time and the money to go to Korea and Japan? You can see the games better on TV. It must be the attraction of mob excitement that draws the crowds, nearly entirely composed of men. The women show more sense. The men are the nasty brutes whose bellicosity must be worked off by symbolic battles. Soccer is the opium of the masses, or whatever drug it is that produces highs. While they live in a world of illusion, it may be possible to construct a better world.

Ronald Hilton - 6/1/02