“I will give you shelter from the storm”
Bob Dylan
We are the lucky ones on earth who have lived in the rich countries of the West for the last half century. It has been the most prosperous, healthiest, and most peaceful period in human history. Suddenly much indicates that this unusual state of relaxation is going to change, that we are not far from returning to the default mode of hardship and barbarism. Luckily we have the bloodless battles of sport as anesthesia to forget, if only for a while, that economies are sinking and the world seems to be on the verge of going to hell.
Rafa Nadal's epic mission of winning four Grand Slam tournaments in a year distracts us from the terrifying reality that one of the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world is in the hands of a deranged person, one of those who enter a school with a rifle and they kill a dozen children, but, since he says he is at war, nobody puts him in jail, or in a psychiatric sanatorium.
Too bad there is no football right now when we need it most, but we have as consolation the entertainment of the summer soap opera of the transfers to divert our gaze from the most warlike meeting of NATO in decades, the one that is taking place now in Madrid . Speculating on the arrival or not of the veteran Lewandowksi at Barça offers a pleasant alternative to reflecting on the possibility of violence and chaos in the other country with a gigantic nuclear arsenal, which is presided over by another veteran, in this case one who has long since stopped scoring goals, or knowing which goal to shoot at.
Sport not only offers us a refuge, it also gives us a vision of a more orderly and fairer world. More organized because the rules of the game are clear. If you lose a match, you lost it. You cannot spend months or years disputing the result, convincing tens of millions that you really were the winner, as Donald Trump does with the 2020 presidential election.
Sport is fairer than politics because those who reach the top are the good ones. Sport is almost as clean a meritocracy as mathematics. A soccer team has to win games; a government has to win the hearts of voters. The soccer team that wins a championship is the one that has played the best throughout a season. The political party that wins an election may be a good government manager, but its ability to sell itself, its handling of populist keys, will be more decisive. Sport is empirical; democracy is emotional.
An athlete who reaches the top has done so because he is equipped to face all the challenges that come his way. The top footballer must have excellent control of the ball, a wide vision of the game, a telepathic relationship on the field with his teammates, the mental strength not to sink when the result goes against him. And much more.
A politician comes to power because he has a hungry ego and knows the tricks to win elections, but is only partially prepared, at best, to respond to the problems he will have to face. You can get to the top with absolutely no control over what it takes to run the economy, no strategy in international politics, no good working relationship with your cabinet, no reflexes in the event of an unexpected setback like a pandemic. or a war in the Ukraine.
And then, if the ruler proves manifestly unfit to follow, try to remove him! Let's look at the case of Boris Johnson, a naked emperor, a demagogue who has finally revealed himself for what he is, a useless soloist on the field of play, the architect of a tactical plan, Brexit, which leads his country to the second division. But there he remains as British Prime Minister.
They don't take it out because politics is due to factors that have more to do with perceptions or prejudices than with results. Instead, a football player stops performing, even a unique talent like Ronaldinho, and out. So meritocracy.
I write about politics and sports. It never crosses my mind to think that one is more important than another, and even less so now that we need to hold on to something solid, reliable and clean like never before.
