A Nation of Nerds
My son - like many millions of other Americans - is in the grips of Soccer Fever. Pardon me, Futbol Fever. This affliction, as predictable as Halley's Comet, comes and goes in the United States rather quickly every four years. As we are currently being repeatedly reminded, soccer/football is the most popular sport everywhere else in the world except here. And I think I know why. Cultural? Bah. Socioeconomic? Pshaw. American Exceptionalism? Give me a break. It's simple really:
We are now - more than ever - a nation of nerds.
Disclaimer: soccer/football is a great sport requiring incredible footwork, endurance, and heart. World-class players are among the best athletes on the planet. However.....
Eternally soccer-mad nations are largely homogeneous. And that just isn't us. Ethnic one-dimensionality hasn't been a part of our history since the establishment of the Jamestown settlement. A multicultural nation such as ours has too many separate histories to bind itself to one language or religion, much less one recreational sport. But any chance the United States had of becoming a soccer nation ended with the Eisenhower Presidency. It was the Era of Conformity. Dress alike. Look alike. Sound alike. Act alike. The two most popular sports in America then were baseball and boxing, in that order. Soccer's window of opportunity was small and it was missed. American football - and its made-for-TV appeal - filled the void and hasn't looked back since.
So, instead of joining the rest of the soccer-loving world, we were set free by the 1960's and 70's, exploding outward in a direct rebellion against the staid sameness of the first 15 years of the Post-War era. Civil rights marches, anti-war protests, recreational drug use, rock and roll, divorce, sex without marriage, women's rights, gay rights, etc. These were all examples of Americans' insatiable need to express themselves as groups and individuals. Quelled for decades, generations, even centuries - their voices have only grown louder and stronger over time.
And as those voices have grown in volume and influence in the last 40 years, so has the diversification of America. Three channels on television? Try 300 or 3,000. Ford or Chevy? Hardly - add a dozen or more major car manufacturers to the list. And once upon a time there was only "pop" music. Today search a genre station on the Pandora website and 30 distinct music choices are given, each with their own sub-genres. Heck, just browse the web for an hour and be dazzled by its limitlessness. This much variety (not to mention cultural diversity) dooms soccer to a quadrennial curiosity here in the States.
So where does Nerd-dom fit into this theory of mine, you may be asking yourself?
The afore-mentioned decades lit a spark of non-conformity and individuality that hasn't been extinguished. Jocks, Nerds, Burn-Outs. Remember those cliques? Self-actualized, self-fulfilling, and terribly limiting. They don't exist anymore, at least not in the context of my childhood. Growing outward and distinct from these groups are a host of other groups that have flourished to such an extent that the Big Three of my youth have simply ceased to exist. Thankfully.
Let's take the term nerd for example. Dictionary.com (a handy 21st century tool) gets it completely wrong. Their two definitions go like this: 1) a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person. 2) an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a non-social hobby or pursuit. Nerd or not, plenty of people demonstrate variations of these qualities from time to time. Besides, aren't we all a little obsessed with something? Hell, I'm a nerd then. And yes, I nodded to myself when I read the second definition. But our greatest minds and innovators have all been nerds. Every last one of them. Good grief, where would we be scientifically and culturally if it were not for those single-minded people? The bottom-line is this: normal, average, typical, and same are all dead. Nerd-dom is here to stay and here to rule. Actually it always has, we just didn't know it.
Case in point: I umpire adult men's softball three nights a week. Aging jocks. Often-times the behavior is crude, the misogyny blatant, the drinking excessive. Still, I enjoy the officiating. But regardless, there is a conforming quality to the pastime, a clear echo of yesterday, not tomorrow. Juxtapose that with occasional trips to a metro area comic book store where I find people reveling in their "differentness," unembarrassed by their child-like glee of "obsessions" that were once kept only to themselves. Bill Gates immediately comes to mind though he wouldn't know a tag up from a tag out. Still, my money's on Bill.
Join the rest of the world and turn to soccer? Nope. We're way too busy being different. Being nerds.
We are now - more than ever - a nation of nerds.
Disclaimer: soccer/football is a great sport requiring incredible footwork, endurance, and heart. World-class players are among the best athletes on the planet. However.....
Eternally soccer-mad nations are largely homogeneous. And that just isn't us. Ethnic one-dimensionality hasn't been a part of our history since the establishment of the Jamestown settlement. A multicultural nation such as ours has too many separate histories to bind itself to one language or religion, much less one recreational sport. But any chance the United States had of becoming a soccer nation ended with the Eisenhower Presidency. It was the Era of Conformity. Dress alike. Look alike. Sound alike. Act alike. The two most popular sports in America then were baseball and boxing, in that order. Soccer's window of opportunity was small and it was missed. American football - and its made-for-TV appeal - filled the void and hasn't looked back since.
So, instead of joining the rest of the soccer-loving world, we were set free by the 1960's and 70's, exploding outward in a direct rebellion against the staid sameness of the first 15 years of the Post-War era. Civil rights marches, anti-war protests, recreational drug use, rock and roll, divorce, sex without marriage, women's rights, gay rights, etc. These were all examples of Americans' insatiable need to express themselves as groups and individuals. Quelled for decades, generations, even centuries - their voices have only grown louder and stronger over time.
And as those voices have grown in volume and influence in the last 40 years, so has the diversification of America. Three channels on television? Try 300 or 3,000. Ford or Chevy? Hardly - add a dozen or more major car manufacturers to the list. And once upon a time there was only "pop" music. Today search a genre station on the Pandora website and 30 distinct music choices are given, each with their own sub-genres. Heck, just browse the web for an hour and be dazzled by its limitlessness. This much variety (not to mention cultural diversity) dooms soccer to a quadrennial curiosity here in the States.
So where does Nerd-dom fit into this theory of mine, you may be asking yourself?
The afore-mentioned decades lit a spark of non-conformity and individuality that hasn't been extinguished. Jocks, Nerds, Burn-Outs. Remember those cliques? Self-actualized, self-fulfilling, and terribly limiting. They don't exist anymore, at least not in the context of my childhood. Growing outward and distinct from these groups are a host of other groups that have flourished to such an extent that the Big Three of my youth have simply ceased to exist. Thankfully.
Let's take the term nerd for example. Dictionary.com (a handy 21st century tool) gets it completely wrong. Their two definitions go like this: 1) a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person. 2) an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a non-social hobby or pursuit. Nerd or not, plenty of people demonstrate variations of these qualities from time to time. Besides, aren't we all a little obsessed with something? Hell, I'm a nerd then. And yes, I nodded to myself when I read the second definition. But our greatest minds and innovators have all been nerds. Every last one of them. Good grief, where would we be scientifically and culturally if it were not for those single-minded people? The bottom-line is this: normal, average, typical, and same are all dead. Nerd-dom is here to stay and here to rule. Actually it always has, we just didn't know it.
Case in point: I umpire adult men's softball three nights a week. Aging jocks. Often-times the behavior is crude, the misogyny blatant, the drinking excessive. Still, I enjoy the officiating. But regardless, there is a conforming quality to the pastime, a clear echo of yesterday, not tomorrow. Juxtapose that with occasional trips to a metro area comic book store where I find people reveling in their "differentness," unembarrassed by their child-like glee of "obsessions" that were once kept only to themselves. Bill Gates immediately comes to mind though he wouldn't know a tag up from a tag out. Still, my money's on Bill.
Join the rest of the world and turn to soccer? Nope. We're way too busy being different. Being nerds.
After Porkey's, Weird Science and 16 candles, "Nerd" became the new "Cool"
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