Taking advice from the Dalai Lama? Sure. But Noam Chomsky?
Posted on 11/13/2013 2:47:35 AM PST by markomalley
A Denver Broncos lineman is quitting the NFL — and walking away from an additional $1 million he would have made if he’d stayed through the end of his contract next year — because he’d begun reading the works of liberal linguist Noam Chomsky and the Dalai Lama.
Guard John Moffitt called the Broncos from his home in Seattle last week and said he wouldn’t be back.
Unlike Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Jonathan Martin, who famously quit the team amid allegations that he was being bullied and harassed by teammates, Moffitt told the Associated Press that he was simply no longer all that thrilled to be playing football.
“I just really thought about it and decided I’m not happy,” he told AP. “I’m not happy at all. And I think it’s really madness to risk your body, risk your well-being and risk your happiness for money.”
“Everybody, they just don’t get it and they think it’s crazy,” he said. “But I think what I was doing is crazy.”
He also cited the works of Noam Chomsky, who once said that cheering for your home team was a way of “building into people irrational submissiveness to power,” as part of his decision.
The prolific author, media critic and liberal activist and commentator is quoted in his 1992 book “Manufacturing Consent” saying that sports are part of a propagandist “indoctrination system” meant to distract “Joe Six Pack” from “things that matter.”
“The purpose of those media is just to dull people’s brains,” he said. “This is an oversimplification, but for the 80 percent or whatever they are, the main thing is to divert them. To get them to watch National Football League.”
“[I]t’s a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority, and group cohesion behind leadership elements — in fact, it’s training in irrational jingoism,” Chomsky wrote. “That’s also a feature of competitive sports. I think if you look closely at these things, I think, typically, they do have functions, and that’s why energy is devoted to supporting them and creating a basis for them and advertisers are willing to pay for them and so on.”
Moffitt has only played two games for the Broncos after being acquired from the Seattle Seahawks in August. AP reported that he’s earned $1.8 million in his two and a half NFL seasons. He’s leaving the Broncos during an 8-1 season in which they’re in second place in the AFC West. The team has a real chance to make the Super Bowl.
Moffitt shrugged it off.
“I don’t care about the Super Bowl,” he told AP. “I don’t need the Super Bowl experience. I played in great stadiums and I played against great players. And I had that experience and it’s enough.”
Moffitt didn’t say what new career he’ll pursue, but said he plans to spend more time with his parents, his girlfriend and her 5-year-old daughter.
How much do you want to bet this guy will be active in some kind of putrid liberal cause, and will always be introduced as a former football player?
Better than being introduced as a Noam Chomsky rump-swab, I guess.
A Brony?
But I will say this for the Dalai Lama, he at least has the capability to be interesting and funny in unexpected ways.
Noam Chomsky, not so much. He is just a desiccated liberal turd.
The Roman ruling elite knew this. Hence panem et circensis (bread and circuses).
Dalai Lama is a self-professed marxist.
Denver Broncos? Rocky Mountain high? Legalized marijuana?
Sort of like a "stand up philosopher":
If the guy had just said, “I’ve made enough money, I’m burned out on the game, I’m tired of getting banged up every Sunday, and it’s time for me to move on because there are more important things than football,” we would have all complimented him on his maturity. But he had to go Chomsky on us .... which turns his decision to quit into an indictment of the game that has made him rich.
I didn't mean to endorse the guys source, just the act of being changed/led by something he read.
It’s not like he doesn’t have a million or so to help him find a new job, but his mention of Chomsky kind of tells me he is a nut case.
Every now and then, a liberal gets something right.
I'll amen that. Nothing gets me as angry as going through the radio dial and hearing snatches of talk on these sports talk radio stations. Here, our country is falling apart and these men are talking sports! It is a distraction.
more importantly, who has beaten the Broncos thisvyesr?
Seattle and Chomsky go together like flies and a big 'ol steaming horse pie.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Marx likely borrowed from Buddhism. But, Buddhism does not sanction dictatorship. Chomsky is nowhere near a Buddhist.
Does anyone remember Chip Glass of the ST. Louis football Cardinals doing the same thing but because of the hippie ethos, not Noam Chomansky?
He should finish out his contract and THEN quit. Take all the money. Chomsky may be right. I don’t care for sideline reporters, pink colors for breast awareness and the military being part of the games. Some sort of manipulation going on here.
Taking advice from the Dalai Lama? Sure. But Noam Chomsky?
Well, I can sympathize. I wouldn’t necessarily quit an extremely remunerative job, but reading Chomsky for any length of time will depress you so much you’ll be reaching for razor blades to slash your wrists.
LOL, I know that. And you are correct...it is not a crime to be influenced by things you have read.
I know that two of the most influential books on me were “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers and “Treason” by Ann Coulter. (With my citing of Ann Coulter, I could imagine the heads popping off of some people in disbelief for castigating this football player for citing a “heavyweight” like Chomsky, and me citing a “lightweight” like Ann Coulter)
But for me, in many cases it was not the actual content of the books that were most significant for me, but for the way they prompted me to evaluate the status, history and, ultimately, the validity of my own premises and what I had absorbed over my life from the schools and media.
The way I see it, this guy is doing one of two things: he is either citing Noam Chomsky to appear intelligent, or he is absorbing the dogma of Noam Chomsky and his ilk without critically analyzing it.
I have never understood why these players don’t just play for a couple years and if they saved any of their bounty don’t just retire or start a business. I guess saving their bounty is the key here. Guys that play over 10 years and take that beating are just conceited in my opinion.
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