The Narcissism of Small Differences

Thursday 6^th September promises to be a red letter day for connoisseurs of sporting administration in the North East.  Firstly, the Northern League Management Committee are meeting to discuss the ramifications of Blyth AFC’s resignation on the rest of the first division, which is now down to 18 teams with potentially 2 of those idle each weekend. There are fines to be handed down and fixture rearrangements to be considered. Additionally, the NEPL convenes to discuss the situation for 2019, whereby there are 3 vacancies to fill; Seaham Harbour’s demise over the winter, Durham County Cricket Club’s decision to mothball their Academy side, possibly for reasons of cost or the paucity of emerging talent, and the expulsion of Brandon from NEPL 1 for failing to attain Clubmark status, which is basically the cricketing equivalent of FA Charter Status, have caused this situation. As it stands, the clubs ready to fill the vacancies are Crook from the DCL, as well as Shotley Bridge and Ashington from the NTCL. These neophytes, as well as a proposal to dispense with relegation from the Premier Division, meaning Burnopfield will simply replace Durham Academy, need to be voted through by the clubs. In essence the Management Committee are proposing the bottom side in the Premier Division is given a free pass to avoid relegation, much in the way the clubs decided to dispense with relegation from Division 1 once Seaham Harbour had left the league. Ambitious Division 1 clubs may not be so understanding this time. Finally, there’s the question of Stockton’s oft-stated desire to move to the NYSD league, though they missed the 31^st July resignation date.  There’s undoubtedly a recipe for hot air and hot tempers.

Meanwhile, the North East Midweek Cricket League holds its AGM at Blue Flames, with awards and a buffet following the main business of the meeting. With Captain Mark playing on the trains and Hot Les in Germany for a wedding, it looks like I’ll get the gig as Bad Boys representative on the night we have our promotion to Division 2 rubber stamped. Full speed ahead for games against Civil Service, Cramlington, Genetics, The Main and Merz & McClellan, as well as renewing rivalries with Bates Cottages and Sparta who were promoted with us.  More about this in the end of season cricket blog, which will be next week’s job of work, written through floods of tears at the passing of another summer.

Never mind Thursday, there’s also the small matter of Wednesday 5^th to discuss. Remember back to February 1^st when True Faith ran a night at the Irish Club where a load of journalists, and Martin Hardy, pontificated about the fortunes of Newcastle United after another transfer window of inactivity? Obviously, I didn’t go; Mogwai were on at Northumbria and that’s where the cool kids were. On September 5^th, they’ll be at the clash of the North Tyneside non-league titans when Benfield host Whitley Bay. The alternative is hunkering down for another evening of righteous chest-thrashing and charity shop demagoguery as the creaking edifice of the Magpie Group has called a public meeting to discuss the next steps forward in their faltering campaign to save Newcastle United. As they believe Ashley is to blame for the current plight of the club and not Benitez, I won’t be with them in spirit either; unless they adopt a policy of boycotting games, when I’ll stand with them, giving critical support. I said last time around that the only stances I could admire were the absolutists practising absenteeism and the apoliticals still attending. I mentioned NUFC.com as principled examples of the latter; perhaps it didn’t go down too well with Friends of Martin Hardy, as Mike Bolam pointedly blanked me outside Platform 2 in Tynemouth Station (if you’ve not been; go immediately as the beer’s brilliant) last Thursday. Who can tell? 

As far as the Magpie Group is concerned, it appears that in their wish to serve the wishes and agenda of all their constituent parts, they are suffering what Freud and Lacan referred to as the narcissism of small differences. Freud initially posited that the collective narcissism of those involved in what is ostensibly a group task or relationship, will inevitably result in manifestations of aggression. Lacan refined this theory to include the presence of envy, essentially defining passive aggression, as well as suggesting this can be measured on an intragroup conflict scale.

Certainly, Lacan’s thinking explains why these boys made a hell of a mess when trying to organise a demonstration outside Sports Direct and a flag waving march from The North Terrace, three hours and one hour respectively, before the Chelsea game. A fortnight before, the demonstration before the Spurs game had been loud, well-attended and impressive, despite the presence of the usual half dozen Leninist headcases from Taaffe’s SPEW Vanguard trying to organise some sort of mass workers’ movement. Unfortunately, Walter Benjamin’s prophecy in Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit came true on a soaking Sunday, when an accurate reproduction of the initial experience before Spurs failed spectacularly, as Guy De Bord would no doubt agree.  The fact it lashed it down all day is probably why Newcastle fans showed themselves to be Fairweather Revolutionaries and conspicuously blanked the event. The failed protest wasn’t the worst thing about that day, neither was Yedlin’s unfortunate own goal that snatched a precious point away. The very worst thing was the absolute low life who stole the “Pavel is a Geordie” flag at full time. I’m no particular lover of flags, but that banner was one of the very few things every NUFC bought into, as it remembered a late, lamented terrace hero. Whoever stole it ought to be absolutely ashamed of their conduct. Thank goodness it has been returned.

Now I’m not saying the calamitous decrease in protestors on Northumberland Street when compared to the Spurs game was comparable to the fact the Pope’s simultaneous Phoenix Park gig attracted a million less Holy Joes, devout cripples and clericofascist nutters than the 1979 tour had, but there are similarities. While accepting that, of course, Leeds and Everton would have taken more, the smaller than anticipated showing of Holy Sight Seers at Phoenix Park wasn’t because of a fear of encountering Emmett Stagg in the Jax, but because the Catholic Church hasn’t had a great last 40 years in Ireland, to be frank. The situation, as a result of the 26 counties pretty much abandoning the Mother Church has resulted in a society that is considerably more tolerant, inclusive and multi-ethnic than the 6 counties, can’t be ignored. Religion, except among the culchies, is dying. Observance and obsequiousness are gone; they have been replaced by the great symphony of indifference. While 200K delusional taigs assembled to hear Pope Francis blether on, about 30,000 assembled to protest about historical sexual abuse by the Catholic Church and the Tuam Baby Home scandal. This is not an inconsiderable number of those seeking to finally gain justice for the appalling crimes of the church, which were compounded by organisational indifference and obfuscation, but the cold, hard fact is far, far more Irish citizens sat on their backsides and watched it on the telly than worshipped or demonstrated. The Magpie Group would do well to note this and not assume the presence of a definite majority of unquestioning opposition to Ashley’s ownership among the support as a whole.

This week is a brief period of respite for those concerned with Newcastle United. In the Premier League, the team sit in 18^th, the final relegation spot that they last occupied at New Year. After 4 games, the team have lost 2-1 on three separate occasions, scoring brilliant consolation goals in each game and doing their very best to ensure damage limitation. To an extent, it has worked. There have been few grumbles about the losses to Spurs, Chelsea and Manchester City; this tolerance will be tested if the visit of Arsenal, who appear to be managed by Dave Vanian’s body double, results in a defeat on 15^th September. At least that game won’t be on television, unlike the 5 winless performances before the international break.

While losing to the stellar trio by a single goal is excusable, the more significant debacles were the ones at Cardiff and Nottingham Forest. In South Wales, the whole rancid afternoon could have been saved if Kenedy had scored the penalty, but his miss summed up a catastrophic 90 minutes that preceded it. The Forest game saw a stonewall penalty waved away in the last seconds, but even if it had been awarded and scored, the shameful way Karanka’s side outperformed even NUFC player apart from the superb Sean Longstaff needs to be recognised. In both games, an utter lack of any attacking intent or pattern of play resulted in a furious response on social media. Most angry hot heads somehow extrapolated that Ashley was to blame for the team’s inadequate displays, though finally the penny seems to have dropped among a growing section of the support that Benitez’s dinosaur tactics may just be a factor to why we’re doing so badly. Of course, any criticism of Benitez was shouted down in immoderate language.

Jacques Derrida called this one best; his theory of “phallogocentrism,” a theory that combined the dual concepts of “logocentrism” and “phallocentrism,” refers to the privileging of the masculine (phallus) in the construction of meaning. Derrida’s phallogocentric argument is premised on the claim that modern Western culture has been culturally and intellectually subjugated by logocentrism, the philosophy of determinateness, while phallocentrism is the way logocentrism itself has been genderised by a phallic and patriarchal agenda.

In the current time, this means the narrative of blame regarding Newcastle United has been railroaded by loud, male voices to apportion all responsibility to Mike Ashley. As an aside, David Ryle’s photos of the degeneration of SJP that went viral on social media point to a clear lack of investment in the club’s infrastructure, where responsibility must be Ashley’s. This is apodictic or determinate knowledge; the visual evidence is compelling and could not be contradicted. In short, this is truth.

Unfortunately, in matters of interpretation, the situation is more complex as the spectre of indeterminateness becomes relevant. According to Derrida indeterminate or aporetic knowledge is "based on contradictory ideas ("aporias") that make it impossible to determine matters of truth with any degree of certitude, because the “facts,” such as they are, are open to contradictory interpretations.  In short, blaming Mike Ashley for Newcastle United’s current position in the table is as logical an interpretation of “facts” as blaming Benitez. “Truth,” as far as it can be defined in aporetic terms, is based on opinion when it is indeterminate.

Returning to apodictic analysis; it is clear that Newcastle United’s current situation may get even worse unless Benitez can put his own agenda to one side and attempt to fashion a decent team out of the constituent parts of his squad.