The fact that I am even writing about the latest tirade from Kevin Pieterson arguably grants him his wish. As Oscar Wilde said in the "Importance of Being Earnest", there is only one thing worse than being talked about - not being talked about. Thus was born the modern age with it's unpleasant celebrity culture.
It is a peculiar trait of modern life that autobiographies are now written before a life has been properly lived out. But that is legacy of nihilism most notably predicted by Nietszche in his groundbreaking book "Beyond good and evil". In his 1882 book "The gay science" Nietszche announces that "God is dead, God remains dead and we have killed him". Nietszche was one of the greatest philosophers of any era and his predictions have reached their fruition to the letter.
God in the sense that Nietszche meant may well have been largely killed. But he also predicted that the old God would be replaced by new ones in which the primary goal was the pursuit of pleasure while old values such as morals were dispensed with. That we find ourselves immersed in the age of celebrity is borne out by me even writing this. The fact that I don't recognise Pieterson as a celebrity misses the point. The entire foundation of celebrity is based on recognition and garnering attention irrespective of it being positive or negative.
As Pieterson launched in to his latest gripe with his erstwhile team-mates, he did so knowing that his somewhat premature autobiography is about to go on sale. And so it goes on. When I look back to the cricketers of my youth, narcissism was thankfully rare so stuck out like a sore thumb when it reared it's ugly head. Botham famously had his hair tinted with blonde streaks after serving a ban for drug-taking. As statements go, it was about as provocative and nihilistic as we could possibly imagine: "You may have banned me from playing but you need me more than I need you and we both know it so I've even dyed my hair to accentuate the point".
Quite what Pieterson hopes to achieve with his latest outburst is a bit of a mystery. Team sport at the highest level is fraught with large egos and big personalities. Being able to accept abuse is just as important as being able to dispense it. That doesn't make it right of course. Before the professional era was augured in between the wars, it would have impossible to imagine this sort of public spat taking place. For one thing, it was not the done thing in a society still held tightly within the established class divisions. Since then of course, class division has become progressively less obvious, and to many people, less relevant. Class of course was one of the very values to which Nietszche referred when he predicted the age of the nihilists.
If the cricket side of the argument is even to be considered, I can't even see what the arguments are. During the course of the Ashes series in Australia, Pieterson was dismissed as a result of playing so many irresponsible shots without a care in the world. Putting aside the world around him, these were not the shots of a man who valued his team-mates either. It is so predictable in today's world to hear someone like Pieterson explain this away by insisting that this is the way he plays. Well, if that really is the way he plays, there is no doubt in my mind that England are far better served without him. He is clearly a luxury they can ill afford.
If you go to a great restaurant for twenty meals have nineteen excellent meals, you will seldom remember the nineteen if the other one was a bad one. So too it is with batting. You only get one chance and then you're out. As Geoffrey Boycott is so fond of saying, "You're no good to the team when you're back in the pavilion bemoaning your luck". It would be hard to imagine the batting greats giving their wicket away so cheaply to so many loose shots. the Legend of players like Bradman, Hammond, Hobbs, Sutcliffe and others is borne out of the extent to which their wickets became so prized. Their predecessors were men like C.B.Fry and Ranji. These were true greats of the game but it would have been unthinkable to hear them publicly criticising their team mates in the manner we have seen this week.
Dressing rooms are not always places for the faint hearted or the easily offended. Cricket is no different to any other game. It is clear that Pieterson's tirade this week has been the last words of a man still smarting from the harsh realities of professional team sport. He has had his chances and with every word this week, he has just rammed the comeback door more firmly in to it's tight fitting frame. It is all well and good to bat like a cavalier but those who live by the sword die by the sword.
Fixated entirely on himself, Pieterson is just another in a long line of narcissists plying their trade in the age of celebrity and nihilism. Today's news will wrap the fish and chips of tomorrow because today's news was never news in the first place.
It is a peculiar trait of modern life that autobiographies are now written before a life has been properly lived out. But that is legacy of nihilism most notably predicted by Nietszche in his groundbreaking book "Beyond good and evil". In his 1882 book "The gay science" Nietszche announces that "God is dead, God remains dead and we have killed him". Nietszche was one of the greatest philosophers of any era and his predictions have reached their fruition to the letter.
God in the sense that Nietszche meant may well have been largely killed. But he also predicted that the old God would be replaced by new ones in which the primary goal was the pursuit of pleasure while old values such as morals were dispensed with. That we find ourselves immersed in the age of celebrity is borne out by me even writing this. The fact that I don't recognise Pieterson as a celebrity misses the point. The entire foundation of celebrity is based on recognition and garnering attention irrespective of it being positive or negative.
As Pieterson launched in to his latest gripe with his erstwhile team-mates, he did so knowing that his somewhat premature autobiography is about to go on sale. And so it goes on. When I look back to the cricketers of my youth, narcissism was thankfully rare so stuck out like a sore thumb when it reared it's ugly head. Botham famously had his hair tinted with blonde streaks after serving a ban for drug-taking. As statements go, it was about as provocative and nihilistic as we could possibly imagine: "You may have banned me from playing but you need me more than I need you and we both know it so I've even dyed my hair to accentuate the point".
Quite what Pieterson hopes to achieve with his latest outburst is a bit of a mystery. Team sport at the highest level is fraught with large egos and big personalities. Being able to accept abuse is just as important as being able to dispense it. That doesn't make it right of course. Before the professional era was augured in between the wars, it would have impossible to imagine this sort of public spat taking place. For one thing, it was not the done thing in a society still held tightly within the established class divisions. Since then of course, class division has become progressively less obvious, and to many people, less relevant. Class of course was one of the very values to which Nietszche referred when he predicted the age of the nihilists.
If the cricket side of the argument is even to be considered, I can't even see what the arguments are. During the course of the Ashes series in Australia, Pieterson was dismissed as a result of playing so many irresponsible shots without a care in the world. Putting aside the world around him, these were not the shots of a man who valued his team-mates either. It is so predictable in today's world to hear someone like Pieterson explain this away by insisting that this is the way he plays. Well, if that really is the way he plays, there is no doubt in my mind that England are far better served without him. He is clearly a luxury they can ill afford.
If you go to a great restaurant for twenty meals have nineteen excellent meals, you will seldom remember the nineteen if the other one was a bad one. So too it is with batting. You only get one chance and then you're out. As Geoffrey Boycott is so fond of saying, "You're no good to the team when you're back in the pavilion bemoaning your luck". It would be hard to imagine the batting greats giving their wicket away so cheaply to so many loose shots. the Legend of players like Bradman, Hammond, Hobbs, Sutcliffe and others is borne out of the extent to which their wickets became so prized. Their predecessors were men like C.B.Fry and Ranji. These were true greats of the game but it would have been unthinkable to hear them publicly criticising their team mates in the manner we have seen this week.
Dressing rooms are not always places for the faint hearted or the easily offended. Cricket is no different to any other game. It is clear that Pieterson's tirade this week has been the last words of a man still smarting from the harsh realities of professional team sport. He has had his chances and with every word this week, he has just rammed the comeback door more firmly in to it's tight fitting frame. It is all well and good to bat like a cavalier but those who live by the sword die by the sword.
Fixated entirely on himself, Pieterson is just another in a long line of narcissists plying their trade in the age of celebrity and nihilism. Today's news will wrap the fish and chips of tomorrow because today's news was never news in the first place.
Comments
Post a Comment