Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Mobocracy

By Kevin   Hudson  ::  09/10/2011   16 Comments (»Last) Certain spectators at both recent, and antiquated sporting events have manifested what Jung referred to as the "collective unconscious", in which not only irrational behaviour, but also mild & mass hysteria have been witnessed amid the backdrop of athletic contest. This, of course, is nothing new.

At it?s most extreme level, from the Nika Riots in 532, to the legendary Dinamo Zagreb v Red Star Belgrade clash in 1990, the herd mentality has been seen to defy normal social constraints, resulting in violence, threats of violence & abnormal levels of vitriol normally reserved for Omaha Beach or Agincourt-like environments. Both Goodison Park & White Hart Lane came under the national microscope this week as the actions of sections of their partisan support came under fire from the world's media.

Whilst the back story, social context & precedents set by the uprising against Justinian I, the ballot box success of the HDZ party a week prior to THAT symbolic & catalytic derby in Croatia, bear little relevance to both Merseyside & North London Derbies, the tribal themes resonate as loud, and almost as vociferous, as ever.

A world away from the quarrel in the chariot race of Constantinople's citizens, or the avowed desire of self-determination for the Croats, the contrasting ire of "Gooner," attitudes towards the painful sight of Adebayor running to celebrate his goal in front of them, only to top that by taking up residence as the front man of their bitter rivals - to the wrath of "Toffees" to the cheating antics of Suarez, the complicity of Atkinson, and the polarising figure of Bellamy, it is sport, and more often than not football, that tends to inflame the human predisposition for conflict & inflated drama.

The usually well-behaved patrons sat to my left in the Gwladys Street infuriated me almost as much as the result last week, but what followed 24 hours later practically made my head pop off. "Missile," throwing antics at Goodison was one thing, but the sight of grown men singing about how they literally wished Adebayor dead, followed by their counterparts questioning Wenger's sexuality, made me wonder what the world was coming to.

A world where poison masquerades as passion. Paying members of the public toss vile insult, or a pig's head at complete strangers ? as though it were the most natural thing in the world. A few scoops seemingly expediting a carte blanche mentality where the baser instincts dominate.

This is no rant, supercilious complaint, or Ivory Tower judgement from upon high. Make no mistake, I'm almost as bad as they come. My nostrils flare up at Derby games, as though the mere presence of Them is a desecration of the Old Lady itself. I idiotically scream dog's abuse at LFC players, which in the cold light of day, confronted by rational analysis, makes no sense whatsoever, and is not something I would dream of doing outside of the ground.

As referenced when Jamie Carragher pulled up next to me at the lights on Queens Drive ? 3 weeks after the ?Andy Johnson,? Derby. Without malice, but not wishing to waste the opportunity, I beeped him & held up 3 fingers, accompanied by a shit-eating grin. Two obvious Blues in the Hackney in front cottoned on, and again without hostility, joined in the ribbing. Give him his due, he took it well. Carra?s face a study in wry disregard..

So this is a straight-forward question to ToffeeWebbers. For you to define what it is that elevates the minority to such levels of primal angst. Your instincts, rationale & experience can embroider this question for me. A question I KNOW already has a fairly obvious answer to it, or at least many theories.

Such as academic studies into crowd psychology, or the proven (I think) speculation that the colour red increases testosterone levels on the playing field. I presume this has always been the way, even despite Kenwright-esque, misty-eyed, romantic notions of sepia-toned, rattle-waving happy-clappers. I know for example, that violence surrounded the game not only in recent decades, but even in the nascency of Association Football, it?s medieval precursor, and the game of ?Cuju,? in Bronze-age China, was militaristic in nature.

The fraternity & civic pride demonstrated in the Milk Cup Final in 1984 seems a long time ago. Of course I know hooliganism & potassium-rich, fruit-based racism was an unfortunate part of life back then, so they weren?t so innocent. It?s assumed that things are so much better today, despite the well-established discussion of the toxic nature of the modern Merseyside rivalry. Yet the Kop?s wonderful touch to the Evertonian family of Rhys Jones demonstrated both that grace still exists, and Shankly?s hackneyed ?life and death,? maxim, although witty, was meaningless.

Whilst Sheedy?s innocuous V-sign to the Kop barely registered on the national radar, if that happened today, our friends at Sky Sports News would be all over it, whipping it up like they do every time Joey Barton farts. Despite both the cosmetic & genuine make-over of the modern game, and the spectre of proper ugliness behind us, I couldn?t imagine Tim Howard looking bemused, yet happily accepting a handbag from some wag, behind the Kop goal. I don?t think there?s as much fun as there used to be. So I?d like to know if the atmosphere of the modern game is skewed by some form of repression? Or anger at the way the game has gone?

Though, naturally, I would never condone a return to the dark days... Indeed, they haven?t quite diminished yet. In what other sports would you see people hanging an effigy of Sol Campbell, or the Castilian crowd at the Bernabeu racially abusing 5 foot 5 inch Shaun Wright-Phillips? What really provoked Hearts fan John Wilson to attack the Celtic manager? Why DOES Sectarianism HAVE to manifest itself during the Old Firm game? I KNOW why ? but why?

Why do slack-jawed mates of my younger brother think that ?Green Street,? & ?The Football Factory,? are ?sick,? films? Why am I just as bad? Why did I part with my own coin to purchase Andy Nicholl?s predictable & vainglorious paperback ?Scally??

What other environment would you see Howard Webb instructing the Greek & Croat players to stop the contest ? just two minutes into it, because violence on the terraces had already erupted?

Why does football attach itself to politics? Why do groups like the ?Irriducibili?, the ?Boixos Nois? or the "Naughty Forty? spring up? Why was it so easy for ?Arkan? to conscript the ?Delije? into his paramilitary force in order to kill their own neighbours?

Is it truly war by other means?

Football isn?t the Salem Witch Trials, or the Partition of India, it is the world?s most popular sport. So is enmity something hardwired into all of us? Are we acting out of instinct, temporarily overriding our moral compass? Warping our sense of belonging? Is economic envy the driving force? Is it paradoxically healthy to vent our spleen at opposition players & referees? To offset our frustration with the mortgage, career, or simply our own team's shortcomings?

This article has come about because of a lively discussion I had with an (admittedly not slack-jawed) boyfriend of my younger sister, who sought my opinion on a University dissertation he is working on. Some crap about morality & sport in society. He contended that, although he agreed with the premise that football?s combat of hooliganism & racism was a driving force to a better society, he believed that the game?s interest in being an instrument of social change, is conceited.

That the suspected corruption, drug-cheating & political match-fixing (his words) that is so obviously going on, is actually damaging to society. As well as telling him to stop skinning up in my car & stinking it out, having foolishly agreed to give him a lift up to Dewsbury, I told him I could sum it all up quite easily: ?That?s just the way it was. And is...?

At least it whiled away the journey as I took him up the motorway. But as I headed back to Stoneycroft, I reflected on the conversation I?d had with my Leeds-supporting, potential future brother-in-law; I figured that during a quiet week, and with a tenuous link to Everton, I could maybe throw it open to the good patrons of ToffeeWeb Towers, to see what my long-winded query would stir up.

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