Existenz

For most of the last month I, like most of the world outside of the United States, was hooked to the World Cup (WC). I like soccer (nee football) to begin with, and living in Argentina makes it so much easier to follow and get into. The WC is one of the rare events that are able to capture the entire world’s attention all at once. The Olympics come around every two years, but people don’t care about them or follow them in the uniform way that people follow soccer and the WC.

An international event of such magnitude brings up some serious questions regarding what it means to root for or have an allegiance to your country. The socio- and geo-political aspects of the WC have long been discussed (see the great new book The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup here), but more than that, the idea of taking a rooting interest in your own country for the sheer fact that it is your own country seems to be a bit bizarre. It has its roots in national identity, clearly, but that is an ever changing, ephemeral beast. What ties us to our national identities at all? Allegiance to government has nothing to do with sport; indeed, many countries support their national soccer teams in spite of their governments.

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Woody Allen travels to Heidelberg and accidentally discovers a rare text: the previously unknown “Friedrich Nietzsche’s Diet Book.” He blows our minds and sets the world of philosophy on its head with his stirring account in The New Yorker.

An excerpt:

“[Kant] proposed that [if] we order lunch in such a manner that if everybody ordered the same thing the world would function in a moral way. The problem Kant didn’t foresee is that if everyone orders the same dish there will be squabbling in the kitchen over who gets the last branzino. “Order like you are ordering for every human being on earth,” Kant advises, but what if the man next to you doesn’t eat guacamole?  In the end, of course, there are no moral foods—unless we count soft-boiled eggs.”

Get meta with the whole thing at the link below.

Woody Allen: Thus Ate Zarathustra

[post script: Yes, I am back, for those of you who noticed I was absent. Weddings, graduations, intercontinental travel, more time than desired spent waiting in airports, and the World Cup have kept me busy for far too long, and now I return with the force of a Zizou headbutt to the collective chests of blog readers throughout the internets, and to you, dear faithful reader, as I continue to impart knowledge and wisdom from afar. Or something like that. Anyway, I'll be posting regularly again, but more along the lines of weekly instead of every few days. Speaking of the World Cup....see forthcoming post.]

Via David at Death By Papercuts, here is the Monty Python International soccer match. Priceless.

Death By Papercuts: International Philosophy