A right-wing idealogue, NY Times' columnist David Brooks, had
an essay recently in the "paper of record" (recording all
things its editors think is "fit to print") on the coach as
American hero. Brooks, whose response to questions about the
NSA program to spy on the Emails of American citizens was "if
its not legal, let's do everything to make it legal," wrote
that the sports coach melds individuals into a team, teaches
giving up individual needs and wants to the group, instills
the ideal of obedience to authority, and disciplines his
players' emotional and sensual desires so they subordinate
their own personalities to right-thinking adults. Brooks
concludes that it's time American kids put aside rebellious
heroes like the rock star, the loner, the hoodlum and the
rebel for responsible adults like the coach (never mind the
exploitation of "student-athletes" and the hypocritical
"there's no I in team [but there's a 6-figure salary for me]"
philosophy. A successful coach certainly has personality,
smarts, and leadership qualities. But this figure seems to me
to be the reverse of the PI, because s/he discourages
separateness and confrontation with the dark,
self-expressive, possibly chaotic core of the unique self. If
the borderline between the creative, the neurotic, and even
the criminal in human motivations is ignored, or rejected as
"anti-group," or "immoral," then people suppress what is most
essentially the naked truth about their own humanity. No noir
writer does that. Only soft-boiled moralists like Brooks
do.
>The other day, in passing, I heard someone on the
Tube saying that the New
>American Hero is the Coach. He (or she) is the new
Hollywood Hero. The
>Coach can get things done. Kids listen to the Coach.
As Doug says, "the
>traditional American hero -- individualistic to the
point ofisolation,
>deeply moralistic, violent, stoic, a Romantic, etc."
The Coach fits.
>
>
>
>In another email, Doug write, "the Western is about
confronting and "taming"
>or reconciling
>chaos in a direct kind of way." Remove the word
"Western" and insert
>"Coach." Hmmm.
>
>The Coach -- aka, the grizzled gunfighter who straps
on his Colt yet one
>more time -- makes the Team work as one! Yeah, the
Herd wins the Big Game!
>
>The Coach with two guns in his hands? Hey, I could
see him protecting the
>day care center. Hmmm. Maybe that's Bruce Willis's
next flick.
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Feb 2006 EST