A Tangled Web

'At Least Two-Thirds of Our Miseries Spring from Human Stupidity'



Last night I was unable to make my regular contributions to A Tangled Web. I was contacted by the local police who informed me that a client of mine (I work as a counsellor and liaison worker with people affected by drug and alcohol abuse) had attempted suicide and, with no family to call upon, had asked me to visit him at a nearby hospital. Despite a number of years in the job, the capacity of suicidal people to shock never diminishes. They are, for the most part, people beset with so many tragedies that attempted suicide represents the best 'cry for help' they have. In other words, they have problems of a great and distressing magnitude, and issues well-worth crying about.



'What is the point of the above tale?' - I hear you ask. My answer lies in the ridiculous, contemptible reaction of great swathes of the English nation to last night's deserved defeat at the hands of the Portuguese, and the demonstrable lack of perspective therein. Whilst driving home from the hospital I was treated to sights of people crying in the street; punching pub walls like errant infants possessing little in the way of discipline; hooligans chanting racist slogans as they emerged from drinking dens so inebriated that the 70% water ratio in the human body had been transformed into neat alcohol; and other such illustrations of thuggish turgidity.



Let's just recall the events of the last few weeks. Here we have a football team (England) with nothing other than a modest talent; supported by a massive contingent of people for whom football represents the world, the universe and the meaning of life. It is a team captained by an egocentric moron sporting a neck tattoo and two pierced ears (somehow one couldn't imagine Professor Stephen Hawking or Tim Berners-Lee sporting neck tattoos and earrings), whose egregious talents in the game he is obscenely well-paid to play were largely responsible for England's defeat last evening.



Aldous Huxley's quote (the title of this blog) is classically accurate in the milieu of contemporary England's infatuation with football. Having emotionally elevated the national team to a level way beyond what their abilities demanded, the precipitous arrival of reality created masses of gibbering wrecks. They, as much as the England team, were responsible for the upsetting situation they found themselves in on that rainy Thursday night.