chaplin

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Why we care about Wayne Rooney's problems

On the way home I listened to The Guardian's Football Weekly. They touched on the Rooney business. The consensus seemed to be that it's none of our business what goes on between Rooney, his wife and one of the hordes of young women who make a career out of sleeping with Premiership footballers.

True enough. It is none of our business. But then somebody said that he had no interest in what Rooney did when he wasn't playing football. That's not true. We are very interested. That interest may be unworthy and impossible to justify but it's there just the same.

Part of this may be a desire to see the rich and famous brought low. I wonder if it's also fuelled by the fact that in our atomised way of life we spend less of our time gossiping about neighbours, family members and work colleagues, as earlier generations might have done, and more time cackling over the misfortunes of those we will never meet and somehow assume are beyond hurt. We're not going to stop, of course, because gossip is in our bones. As the old movie line goes, "if you can't think of anything nice to say about someone, come sit by me."

4 comments:

  1. Maybe it became our business when newspaper editors took football of the back page and gave it leader status. Personally speaking, they can all go and copulate with farmyard animals, I've stopped caring. But I know to some people it's (still) knowledge that must be in their domain.

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  2. I'm not quite sure what Rooney has done this time. I like it that way. It has taken some effort to become sufficiently detached from the devil's radio and at the expense of knowing more important things. I think it's worth it.

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  3. £200 for 20 Marlboro? £6.70's daylight robbery.
    If there's anything sillier than smoking fags it's nursing irrational prejudices against brands of tabs. But you won't catch me bowing to reason. I consider anyone who smokes Marlboro to be a bit iffy.

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  4. I have no interest in what he gets up to on the field or otherwise. Why is it assumed that every male and many females care passionately about football and the whole palaver? It is not the case and any interest I feign is entirely for marketinig purposes as a friend puts it.

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