FIFA World Cup 2014

[Platapus]

During the finals, did anyone else see the Guinness "Empty chair" commercial... and did anyone else cry like I did?

[heartc]

Originally Posted by Skybird

That may be irrational. Even confusing. Nevertheless such irrational symptoms still can echo in reality, and define it.

No. That is rational. It might seem irrational from an exclusively evolutionist perspective, since we are all African apes after all, but this is very abstract in a practical sense and not applicable on the day-to-day scale of human lifetime, which is what matters for relationships between humans. It is very rational from the sociological and cultural perspective. What is irrational instead is lumping all people from all over the world together into the same spot - not by natural exchange between the groups / races / cultures, but by political maneuvering and intent - and then on the one hand putting pressure on a group to "integrate" (= giving up their cultural identities, customs and values) and on the other hand blaming and chastizing the host group for not being open enough. Then again, it is not irrational to do so if your political goal is to destroy cultural and ethnical bounds so you - as a "multi-national" corporation - don't have to deal with a cohesive front that is "a people" when trying to make everybody a cheap work slave and/or consumer, insuree etc. and control the politics of each..."nation". Against them, against the true masters and mighty, the individual is impotent. Totally impotent. You got a problem? You are fired! So they naturally seek to atomize societies into solely individuals and / or create social / culture tensions within a country, with the inhabitants of that sorry place then being busy blaming each other for their misery - e.g. Germans blaiming the foreigners for the downfall of the welfare system and ever so lower wage job market, and the foreigners blaming the German "Nazis" for being discriminated against by not getting a proper job with reasonable income. They - the masters - would rather have that than natural, healthy peoples showing them their limits by the laws the peoples agreed to live under. No, we don't need that, we don't need your stupid Volk. We want everybody to be the same, meaning everybody is nobody, and if you don't agree with that, you're a racist / nazi / fascist / sexist. The thing is - I agree that if we want to reach the stars one day, we will have to unify as mankind. Imho, we will never reach, say, Alpha Centauri as long as we are divided by culture and religion. If only for the reason that the advanced tech and energy that would be necessary for such a task would be in high risk to be rather used - as long as we are divided - by ourselves against ourselves than before that constructive undertaking would happen. And if it would only be for ancient books from the bronze age ppl are made to believe in. And then we would be done and be wiped off the face of the earth. But this unification has to come about naturally. It has to come about by rational exchange, reason, discussion. Not just between peoples, but foremost within the peoples themselves. We cannot - and we have no business at all, for that matter - to dictate to e.g. Saudi Arabia if they should let their women drive cars or wear a headscarf. That's not going to work. Neither do they have any right to dictate to Germans how we should transform ourselves to accomodate foreign immigrants (never mind, they don't have to, our "own" politicians are doing it for them). Once - through those means mentioned above - we can all agree on the way forward and leave ancient books behind, we might journey to the stars. But it will not come about by social engineering. Especially since those pursuing that agenda have very different objectives in mind.

What distinguishes capitalism from communism? In communism, companies first get nationalized and then ruined, in capitalism they get first ruined and then nationalized. - (Vaclav Klaus)

I might still be on your ignore list, Skybird - from a different time though - when you thought all things Anti-American were good, and I thought all things American were good (excuse that simplification). But I want to say that you're on the right track with that quote (though in capitalism, they don't get ruined and nationalized - they THREATEN to get ruined and then take over the state (= the law people agreed to live under), because they are "systemrelevant" and have the politicians by their balls and in their pockets. You know, there is a very specific conclusion you could draw from that realization re 20th century history. But I won't go there. You'll find out yourself in time, if you keep entertaining your mind. TL;DR: It is rational. What is irrational is lumping everybody together and expect it to work. Or maybe it's not irrational, depending on your agenda. But then see above.

[heartc]

Damn, I paragraphed it and put space between stuff. I saved it into a txt file when trying to get Skybird's quote in it (because signatures won't show when quoting someone, so I had to exit) and then copied it back in. Then it ended up a wall of text, so I edited it again with paragraphs. But it's still a wall of text. Sorry for that.

[heartc]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

I don't say this cause I'm German, I am no nationalist or something, but

See? There is something very wrong with people if they were made to feel obligated to qualify their remarks about A GAME like that. It's sick. Very. (Nothing personal Nippelspanner. I know the drill. And you should start seeing it as such. Here's a hint: You don't need it. You don't owe it.).

[Feuer Frei!]

For German-speaking colleagues, exclusive 5 minute interview with Architect Joachim Löw:

http://www.dfb.de/news/de/d-fifa-wm/...iew/60796.html

Originally Posted by heartc

See? There is something very wrong with people if they were made to feel obligated to qualify their remarks about A GAME like that. It's sick. Very. (Nothing personal Nippelspanner. I know the drill. And you should start seeing it as such. Here's a hint: You don't need it. You don't owe it.).

Err...yeah...right...

[Skybird]

heartc,

no, you are not on my ignore list anymore since a longer time already, and back then I did put you there over a very rude, almost racist offence - not because of a disagreement in opinion. I have not forgotten, but forgiven.

I get you point in what you write above. I agree with much of it.

I cannot remember that I ever would have qualified for a description of thinking that "anything anti-American is good", as you put it. Like I also never were a socialist, like Neal some days ago indicated he thought I were, years ago. I am just critical on some things on which many Americans are uncritical.

When I was at school, in my teen days, I dreamed of immigrating to the US. It may not have been realistic, but unripe juvenile fantasizing - but I had a 5x5cm US flag on my school bag, and I admired Reagan. That socialist and anti-American I was, when I was 16, 17. and that in West-Berlin (and that was an anti-American place indeed).

It's just that I grew older and started to see things more differentiated.

With my Leistungskurs English from school we once visited a musical performance of the theatre group of the German-American John F. Kennedy school in West-Berlin, almost all on stage were Americans. Their singing and dancing semi-professional! That was such a stunning performance, far superior to anything I had ever seen from being done in the various German schools I knew, that after that I was even more determined, for some time, to move to America one day. I asked my teacher about it, a nice and wonderful older lady that we truly loved and admired, her whole family had immigrated to Florida - she was the only one who later returned back to Germany. She did me a good service in getting me grounded again. The other help was my Japanese mentor and combat trainer at that time, whose family had been scattered across all the globe, with members having lost knowledge about and contact to each other.

[Jimbuna]

Watched the game whilst in York at the SubSim Meet and must say I was impressed by how hard the Argentinians made it for the Germans but in the end I thought the best team in the tournament came out the worthy winners....well done Germany.

Originally Posted by Skybird

[/I]I started to doubt him over the past 12 months or so. I did him wrong, obviously.

You sure did, even with the benefit of hindsight

Originally Posted by Skybird

I reward FIFA the award for the most stoned junky of the tournament!

I'd certainly second that

[Skybird]

Thread closed.

[Skybird]

Ein hamma noch...!




This cake is not the ideal booby prize to comfort unhappy Argentinian fans, I suppose...?!

[Jimbuna]

Probably leave a bad taste in the mouth.

[Skybird]

I just read that the teams of Germany and Argentina are about to fight over the ball once again very soon: they do a match in Germany on September 3rd.



The match was already planned during Spring. At that time probably nobody wpuld have expected that it would be the champion versus the vice-champion.

[Skybird]

The ball rolls well for the German national teams: now the national team of the under 19 years olds has become European Champions, in a quite superior tournament performance that was said to be outclassing all others.

[Feuer Frei!]

You probably already knew Sky but Philip Lahm has retired

Best right back in the game for a number of years,
Amazing consistency,
Always reliable.
The team will get through this retirement of course but what a hole to fill.

[Skybird]

He said he would have done so even if they would not have won the world cup, and that the team does not need him anymore, but the youngster need to chose someone from their age group to be their "Leitwolf" for the coming years. Perfect timing by Lahm, who now already gazes at the years after he ended his career.

The youngster's Euro trophy should be a promise that there is not much to worry about retiring key personnel. Plenty of good players seem to follow.