Shakira looks up, the sky has a threatening air and from the cloud the digital God twists his thumblike downwards. The dream of her waka waka of her, nurtured since 2010, comes to an end for her. Before, the gladiators Rod Stewart and Dua Lipa had already withdrawn from the pit, preventively. It is not a show for artists except those of the ball, who come out in dozens waving their flags and applauded by the people -greedy for fury- and by the patricians who sit in their boxes. They are the main dish, they quench the thirst and hunger of millions of followers and generate benefits of all kinds: economic, political, social, sports, media. We will live the World Cup without the hors d'oeuvres, a minor detail.
It is possible that someone will also question them about their participation, they will be few and perhaps not even the players themselves have thought of that possibility. We all take it for granted that singers will be the scapegoat that will conjure up our punctual and ephemeral feeling of guilt. Once 'judged' and sentenced in the new virtual agora by the digital gods and their fanatical believers, we can move on to something else. Who will remember this moral outrage when it's all over and the lights in the pit go out? It has been 12 years since the World Cup was awarded to that country and it is now that the legions of moralists join in with their double standards.
Not wanting to know about the uncleanness of our world is a habitual way of inhabiting it, denying what horrifies us. Football and its passions has always been a good sleeping pill like contemporary bread and circuses, the primordial metaverse, an alternative reality in which to immerse ourselves giving free rein to passions and performances that we do not allow ourselves outside of it. Sometimes, it is essential to continue sleeping to survive so much tragedy, violence or injustice because no one would emotionally resist in permanent indignation. That's why, from time to time, when someone reveals the dark side of life and we can't look the other way, we make a face of discomfort and twist our thumb to point to the one who will pay for everyone. It reassures us to know that sin will have its punishment, but it is also convenient to know that the reality that the dream hides (abuses, violence, deaths, social inequality) one day or another will return as a nightmare.
