As the West disintegrates, its frenzy of self-affirmation becomes more grandiose and grotesque. Our elites, the manufacturers of what passes for culture, arrange mass rites that attest to their greatness and benevolence. The people stand in awe, and just as critically, they are entertained. Nowhere in the United States is this more evident than at the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is not simply a profit bonanza for casinos and network television or mere proletarian distraction; it embodies a potent means of social control. Played in the first week of February, the National Football League’s championship game sets the tone for advertising and entertainment in the coming year. It is also a useful platform to propagandize and condition a population of 300 million. America clearly enjoys its indoctrination, as all too many revel in this spectacle’s base nature. People who have not the slightest interest in football will excitedly gather around billboard-sized TV screens to watch the unveiling of a new commercial for erectile dysfunction pills.

Today's BCS National Championship game in New Orleans will feature a rematch of the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University. It's difficult to get excited about what the sports media has dubbed the “Game of the Century,” when it is a replay of an earlier “Game of the Century” that proved less than thrilling . . .

Back in 1969, the original “Game of the Century” was played between two all-White teams from the University of Arkansas and Texas University. (At the time, Blacks made threats of violence and disruptive behavior if the Razorback band played “Dixie.”) Almost 43 years later, the championship game will feature two, more or less, all-Black squads, and it will be played in the Super Dome, a stadium intrinsically linked with the anarchic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when Black refugees raped and murdered one another on astroturf. 

One wonders whether the football-crazed alumni and student body of both schools will think about these incidents while watching the Tide and Tigers battle for the national title. One wonders whether 'Bama boosters will think about the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, home to 72-percent-Black Birmingham, and what this will mean for the future of their state. One wonders whether LSU fans will worry about the growing rates of almost 100-percent-Black violent crime in New Orleans, or similar situations near their campus in Baton Rogue.

Likely, all that matters to them is that the Tide or that the Tigers pull out the victory and grant either school a year's worth of bragging rights. It's unpleasant to dwell on reality.