Posted by Smalls at syr-24-24-14-133.twcny.rr.com on May 18, 2003 at 04:24:56:
In Reply to: Oh yes posted by Young Nasty Man on May 18, 2003 at 04:11:18:
: As much as I LOATHE that stuff, THIS: "and if it's one of the better-known ones, they can beatify them to Elvis-Diana Sainthood (tm)." ,was mean and uneccessary. I still felt bad when Dale Earnhardt died, and honestly, the fans of that "sport" loved him as much when he was alive as after he died. No one ever talks of him as being a "saint" either.
Central New York is a little slice of Appalachia, my friend, and I have seen me more than my share of porch-flags, car details, poorly-printed tee-shirts and "collectable" plates where Mr. Earnhardt is pictured in pieta limp and fallen poses, ghostly glimmers.... and some, yes, flat-out saintification. Venerated whispers of "number..." whatever number the poor guy was.
Now, of course, I don't find the death of the guy humourous or entertaining, I find it sad... seems he was a nice and charitable guy who wasn't terribly corrupted by pseudo-sport stardom.
What bothers me about the whole deal, rather, is the fucking dicotomy of a sport where 80% of the experience is sitting in the stands, watching 12 cars in 12 lanes go 250 miles an hour, essentially waiting for a spectacular-but-non-fatal crash... and ten million rednecks invading my baseball sportsradio with claims that safety devices "ruin the sport of racing"... but when one of the stars die, a preternatural cult arises.
The entire notion of so-essentially deadly a "sport" is savage and barbaric enough... but when the fanbase applies such a shockingly and awe-inspiringly twisted double standard to their reaction to the death of a star, it honestly disturbs me.
They want their circuses to be as unsafe and deadly as possible... and when one of their gladiators dies from them, instead of actually making their "sport" safer in any way, they just deify the victim and let the show go on as it was.
The whole deal's fascinating in and awful way.
Mike