After being bored to tears over the ages by Phil Mushnick’s crusades against overpriced Nikes, Spike Lee, ESPN, the WWE, late start times for sporting events, the expression “walk off hit” and all manner of slurs against white people, I’m (kind of) pleased to read he’s found a new windmill to battle. In this case, one marked “savagery”.
It was inevitable that the federal prosecution of Michael Vick would be twisted into a case about race, that white America doesn’t understand that dog fighting is a “cultural” endeavor.
Dog fighting might be explained as cultural, but it can’t be excused as cultural. If savage cruelty of any kind is part of anyone’s culture, then right-headed, clear-sighted and foresighted people should spend their time, energy and authority trying to change that culture as opposed to explaining it, excusing it, or in any way defending it.
Hear, hear. Though funnily enough if you type the words “Mushnick” and “Abu Ghraib” into Google, there aren’t any “Equal Time” columns to be found. Same thing if you combine Dr. Phil and pig slaughter.
If Michael Vick does plead guilty to the assortment of federal dog fighting charges he’s facing, I have no problem with the Falcons QB being taken to task for savage cruelty. But there’s all sorts of savage cruelty taking place, some of it legal and/or institutionalized. I’m all for changing the culture for the better, but I’m just curious why Mushnick would have us start with one professional football player (as opposed to say, an entire league).
“If savage cruelty of any kind is part of anyone’s culture, then right-headed, clear-sighted and foresighted people should spend their time, energy and authority trying to change that culture as opposed to explaining it, excusing it, or in any way defending it.”
Couldn’t the NFL itself be defined as a form of savage cruelty? People are paralyzed, people can barely walk by the time they are 40, suffer various brain damage leading to depression and suicide…
my point exactly. But that’s an institutionalized, legal form of cruelty, one that is wildly profitable — particularly for Mushnick’s employer.
Then again, with the possible exception of Ricky Williams, most NFL players are competent, consenting adult-humanoids. The same cannot be said of the dogs maimed for sport.
But either way, if you’re gonna devote yourself to eradicating savage cruelty, by all means, start with the dog fighters. Just don’t forget that all sorts of things went into fashioning their cultural climate. Mike Greenberg might not fathom in a million years why it is socially acceptable to condemn man’s best friend to this kind of treatment. Me, I’m not so shocked. Human lives are cheap enough when there’s profit and vicarious thrills at stake.
Mushnick’s biggest pet peeve is baseball players who don’t hustle out of the box. But all of the other stuff you mentioned is a close second.
David Wright needs to change his hitting music to Guilty of being WRIGHT by Minor Threat
i mean the slayer version
Would it be acceptable for Southern whites to claim lynching African Americans was cultural?
W –
No one on this side (or Mushnick’s side) of the argument is claiming there’s a valid “cultural” excuse for what Vick is accused of. But if Phil is gonna express a desire to rid our culture of what he calls savage cruelty, ’tis worth mentioning that none of it begins or ends with dog fighting.