A few days ago, footie teams here in Blighty were again allowed to have spectators watching them. As if ... er ...
One of the teams which played is now in the news. Before the game began, the players all genuflected, which, I gather, is called Taking the Knee and is an "anti-racist" quasi-sacramental rite. [Giggle giggle ... I heard you say that this would make it very hard for PF to be a professional footballer ... one can't take you anywhere ...]
And some spectators ... it is probably offensive for me even to mention this ... BOOED!!
And ... worse even than that ... climax of horrors ... one OR MORE of them shouted out ... horror warning ... racist offense warning ... shouted out ... yes, you want to know what he shouted ... what racially offensive innuendo, what obscene and wounding slander ... "Sieg Heil", perhaps, or a nostalgic snatch from the Horst Wessel Song? Right ... I'll tell you ... are you sitting comfortably? Is your defibrillator ready? Is its battery still working? ... what he (or they) shouted was
"GET UP!"
Back in the seventies, in our second, inner-city slum, curacy, there were lots of supporters of this particular club. They did have a bit of a reputation for putting themselves around, dear little fellows that they were. Not an underpass went unhonoured by their graffiti. Their chant was "Nobody likes us we don't care"; asyndeton, I grant you, but expressing a couple of truths nonetheless. Their Victorian origins were to be found in the working-class docklands of East London where their opponents were supporters of rival clubs based in rival business firms. Thus the youthful working classes fought out their proxy wars ... cemented their group identities ... and, thank goodness, expended their surplus energy.
Of course, the anti-racism campaigning classes and their [genuine Maoist jargon now coming up] Running Dogs are in a mighty frenzy about all this. I imagine that Inspector Knacker of the Yard and his Boys in Blue are at this very moment Leaving No Stone Unturned to identify the miscreants. Dame Cressida, I am sure, sweet old lady, is "concerned".
But why should our good plain English yobs have outlandish Americanisms foisted upon them? I have been told that Black Lives Matter is a rather iffy organisation ... but even if it isn't, why should young white working-class Londoners, needing for their happiness nothing more than weak Australian beer and a little harmless disorder, be forced to watch these daft alien rituals being enacted upon their own footie grounds? Isn't America big enough?
The traditional form of our beloved Roman Rite can give us some guidance here. On certain penitential days, the deacon, generally an undercover BLM agent, intones "Flectamus genua", and the subdeacon laudably countermands his Wokish boss by shouting
"LEVATE!".
14 comments:
One of your very best, Father. It was so amusing.
THANK YOU Father a great laugh and so refreshing and true!!
Father,
To complete the Triad, we should say "OREMUS."
But wait! That's just it. In the argot of the American sports world, to take a knee was often the command given by the coach to prepare the boys for...prayer on the field! The fiend who turned it into an act of protest has perverted what was once an act of piety in the world of sport, a last remaining bastion where public prayer was accepted and even expected!
Devilish!
From Spiked Online:
“Nothing horrifies the Woke elites more than noises made by working class people. Whether they are saying ‘Let’s leave the EU’ or complimenting a member of the opposite sex on the street, the sounds and statements of the throng often have much of the chattering classes reaching for their smelling salts.......
The Millwall incident was fairly minor in the scheme of things. But the furious, even demented response to it is incredibly revealing. It confirms that there is a chasm-sized gap between the elites and ordinary people. And it confirms that the Woke elites will brook no dissent whatsoever to their divisive agenda of Critical Race Theory and woke re-education.”
Dear Reverend Fr Hunwicke. Exactly.
The Politically Correct Brigade have “Filled Their Boots” with this rather silly, ostensibly totemic, “Let's All Kneel Down Together”.
Can one imagine the HOWLS and SCRECHES of indignation if one were to INSIST that all Footie Chappies burst out in song: “God Save Our Gracious Queen”.
The whole thing is really, really, very funny.
Brilliant connection Father, to the flectamus genua. But the fan who yelled "get up" is to be even more congratulated.
That reminds me how, when I was a boy, we all stood up in the cinema before the screening for "God save the Queen". (In NZ).
TLM meets BLM. Is the TLM racist? Well, the congregation begins by singing "Super nivem dealbabor."
Grant Milburn's citing of "Super nivem dealbabor" reminds me of William Blake's poem "The Little Black Boy", which contains the line: "And I am black, but O! my soul is white." Is it time for the Asperges and the works of William Blake to be put on the Woke Index?
In response to Zephyrinus, many of the footballers in today's English Football League are foreigners and wouldn't have any reason to know the tune or words of God Save the Queen.
Apart from genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament, the only time I knelt on one knee was when I asked my wife to marry me.
The BLM is not primarily about Black Lives as can be seen by a quick perusal of their web site. They are in fact primarily a Marxist organization. It is ironic that the last 4 years of the "racist" President Trump has seen more advances for Black lives in the US than anything that the woke crowd has been able to achieve, advances that will probably be lost in the inevitable downturn now that the Left has been able to steal the US presidency.
Dear Mr Greyman 82,
Isn't the word Wife a lovely word? God bless you both.
The American cultural colonization of nations deemed needing "enlightenment" takes on ever more ominous and darker hues (pun unintended). What an amusing offering, Father. But one question: do you think that after so much cultural devastation future generations will be able to regain sanity and authentic civility---or is the damage permanent until the Great Reckoning?
Thank you Farve.Splendid!
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