1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,040 Speaker 1: This podcast is going to have an awful lot of 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: F bomb Sorry about that. It's one more thing. 3 00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 2: I'm strong Andy. 4 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 3: One more thing, Boss, I was not consulted. 5 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:12,559 Speaker 2: I do not approve. 6 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: Well, here's one thing I try to remember. We're sixty 7 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: flipping years old, and people our age drop f bombs 8 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: like they're nothing. 9 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 2: So I don't know. 10 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:26,880 Speaker 1: I know, for some of you, it's it's a fairly 11 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: course language. For some of you it is apparently not 12 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: based on my being a human being in America currently, 13 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 1: since I hear. 14 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:34,560 Speaker 2: It everywhere all the time. 15 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 1: But this thing we're about to play, it's from Alabama 16 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,879 Speaker 1: football games. Apparently this is a tradition they have there, 17 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 1: and every school has these sorts of traditions, right with 18 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,880 Speaker 1: their chants and songs and everything like that. I find 19 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: this particular. For whatever reason, I found this musing. I 20 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,560 Speaker 1: hope somebody else does do. Alabama has been the biggest 21 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: deal in college football for like the last decade or so, 22 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: and they play the song Dixie Land Delight by the 23 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: country group Alabama, which in the eighties was the biggest 24 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,759 Speaker 1: musical act in America, and it's a very popular song, 25 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: and then they have some it was. 26 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 3: The men without hats guy, but whatever. 27 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I gotta believe back in the day Alabama 28 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: was making the Men without Hats would have been polishing 29 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: the Alabama's guitar players car for the kind of money 30 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:26,679 Speaker 1: they were making. So they shout various things during the 31 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: in between the words, and some of it is sexual 32 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: and some of it is just taunting other teams that 33 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: they play. So this is during one of the timeouts, 34 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: and I will fill in the words since it's a 35 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: little hard to understand. Go ahead, they say many times 36 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: in chance as we go along. 37 00:01:54,320 --> 00:02:09,680 Speaker 2: Still it's a little more grain and beer, real time 38 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 2: against the wall. 39 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 4: All night. 40 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:16,079 Speaker 2: That's the sex. 41 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 4: Part, and LSU and Tennessee too, and just the visual 42 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 4: if you can see the visual, we gotta post it. 43 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 1: We got to post it at Armstrong in getty dot com. 44 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,519 Speaker 1: That is the happiest group of ninety thousand people you 45 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:41,799 Speaker 1: could possibly have does does do you ever? 46 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 2: Do people ever get. 47 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 1: Happier than in that moment there where they're talking about 48 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: drinking beer, having sex and hating their rival colleges. What 49 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: an interesting thing to bond over. 50 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 3: When I was at Cambridge studying chaucer, we did not 51 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 3: indulge it's vulgrase. 52 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:00,919 Speaker 2: Hold it up tight against the wall. 53 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:09,360 Speaker 1: Almost one hundred thousand people chanting that and shaking their fists. 54 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,680 Speaker 1: Just what that has got to be as old as 55 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,720 Speaker 1: human beings, right, that's sort of getting worked up. I 56 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 1: think usually probably for battle throughout history. Most of the time, 57 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,800 Speaker 1: when a village would get together and have various chants, 58 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: you'd be ginning yourself that kind of fired up to 59 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:28,919 Speaker 1: I don't storm the castle or fight off the invaders 60 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: or whatever it is. 61 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 3: But without the knowledge that your head might get stoven, 62 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 3: so you can really enjoy it. 63 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. 64 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: One of my favorite writers, Joanah Goldberg, often talks about 65 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: how he is he is bothered by that sort of thing. 66 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: He's bothered by crowds in general. Enthusiastic crowds, he says, 67 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,320 Speaker 1: are really like the most dangerous thing we can have 68 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: in society because people lose their minds. And you know, 69 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: I see his point. Yeah, it's absolutely true. I guarantee you. 70 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: In that parking lot there were Auburn dudes and Tennessee 71 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,600 Speaker 1: dudes beating the living crap out of each other over 72 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: the kind of enthusiasm that is spurred by that sort 73 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: of thing. I'm not denouncing it, and it's all fun 74 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: and I'm pro chanting and all that sort of stuff, 75 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: but in general, really whipped up crowds are not We're 76 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: not at our most intellectual. 77 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:21,719 Speaker 2: Yeah. What was that book? Was it? 78 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 3: Did Craig Gottwaals recommended to us or I can't remember 79 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 3: the it's the old French scientists who wrote like the 80 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 3: original Analysis of Crowds. 81 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:33,919 Speaker 2: Yeah, I started reading that. It's really interesting. 82 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 3: Oh it's it's the printic is tiny and it's not 83 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:41,240 Speaker 3: even trying to be entertaining. I want some good Malcolm 84 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,039 Speaker 3: Gladwell pop science. 85 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,600 Speaker 1: But the point is crowds can get all worked up 86 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: about practically anything, and once you get that that fever 87 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 1: that was in that stadium right there that you were 88 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: listening to. When you've got that fever, somebody can point 89 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,039 Speaker 1: to like practically anything as the villain right now, and 90 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: you will enthusiastically kick it. 91 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:04,840 Speaker 2: Yes. 92 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:08,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember, as a kid, an adolescent, teenager or 93 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,119 Speaker 3: whenever it was, I first heard the expression the voice 94 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:14,720 Speaker 3: of reason against the howling mob. Yeah, and I found 95 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 3: that very disturbing because I read a lot as a 96 00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:20,159 Speaker 3: kid and revered the founding fathers and stuff like that, 97 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,440 Speaker 3: And you know, I was a real big believer in 98 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:27,760 Speaker 3: the power of ideas. But then to be forced to 99 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 3: reckon with no If there's an angry mob shouting incoherently 100 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 3: for blood over some moronic point of view, the voice 101 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 3: reason doesn't stand a chance. 102 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:38,840 Speaker 1: So you don't think somebody could have stood in the 103 00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 1: middle of that football field and said, Auburn is a 104 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: college much like this one. The socioeconomic background of the 105 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:50,160 Speaker 1: students almost exactly the same here. And as a matter 106 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,760 Speaker 1: of fact, I have the stats in front of me. 107 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: A third of you applied for that college in addition 108 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: to this one. You just happened to go here. 109 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 3: Deemographically speaking, they and their student body are indistinguishable from you, 110 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 3: good people. 111 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:05,679 Speaker 2: Right, and same with Tennessee. 112 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: Which is the truth, sure, is that one of the 113 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,600 Speaker 1: greatest tricks that we've pulled off in Western civilization that 114 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,560 Speaker 1: we funnel that human need through sports, so we can 115 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:23,760 Speaker 1: get that out of particularly young men, that enthusiasm, feeling 116 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 1: part of something whatever, without. 117 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 2: The violence that goes along with it. 118 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 3: Usually well, and even in fandom, it usually doesn't turn 119 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 3: into actual horror or violent very very seldom. 120 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:38,279 Speaker 1: If your team wins a championship. Usually that's about it, 121 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:40,680 Speaker 1: or you beat your main rival. Sometimes that happen you 122 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: tear down the goalposts and flip over a bus or something. 123 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 3: Yeah, but you don't beat somebody to death usually not generally, 124 00:06:47,279 --> 00:06:49,560 Speaker 3: not if it's so rare. It makes the papers when 125 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:54,039 Speaker 3: it happens, or somebody gets now you know, featured on 126 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 3: viral videos and can boned and docked and the rest 127 00:06:56,839 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 3: of it. 128 00:06:57,839 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: Maybe the way to look at it would be that 129 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,160 Speaker 1: it's amazing that you can get and this happens in 130 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: you know, college and professional arenas all across the country weekly. 131 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: But you can get fifty to one hundred thousand people 132 00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:14,720 Speaker 1: that flip and worked up and plied with alcohol and 133 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:19,200 Speaker 1: almost never have any violence or disruption or anything like that. 134 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:25,119 Speaker 3: We're well behaved people sometimes, you know, sometimes too little, 135 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:27,120 Speaker 3: sometimes too much, I think in a lot of ways. 136 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 3: But that's an essay question for another day. But yeah, 137 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:35,120 Speaker 3: it is amazing that it doesn't turn into mayhem more often. 138 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 3: You know. What is also interesting an aspect of humans 139 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 3: is like, for most of the last thirty years or so, 140 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 3: the school where I went to, the University of Illinois, 141 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:47,920 Speaker 3: which has long been part of the big ten has 142 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 3: had a sometimes pretty good but mostly mediocre football program, 143 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 3: and the University of Michigan, for instance, has had a 144 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 3: sometimes mediocre but mostly excellent football program. I remember running 145 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:07,200 Speaker 3: into Michigan fans who carried themselves as if that was 146 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 3: their doing. 147 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 2: Right, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. 148 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 3: And that is another interesting aspect of human psychology. 149 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 2: Yes, I'm familiar with that. 150 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 3: Like a electrical engineer student. You couldn't throw a football 151 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:26,880 Speaker 3: across this dinner table, and much less tackle anybody, but 152 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:30,720 Speaker 3: you're strutting around as if you're some sort of superior 153 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:33,360 Speaker 3: human because of the exploits of those fellas. 154 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,240 Speaker 1: But yes, Michael, oh no, just that image just made 155 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: me laugh. They did it, It's true, and we've all 156 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,560 Speaker 1: done it to a certain extent. I suppose feeling a 157 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,719 Speaker 1: little superior because the team that we root for as 158 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 1: winning or won or like I had anything to do. 159 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,680 Speaker 3: And as a freshman I had to learn the fight song, 160 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:01,720 Speaker 3: which has lyrics that sound as if they were written 161 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,720 Speaker 3: in like the nineteen twenties, because they were. And so 162 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 3: it's not like this is some sort of Internet age phenomenon. No, 163 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:12,080 Speaker 3: you're going off in your beaver fur coat, in your 164 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:15,280 Speaker 3: open car with your pennant and your best gal who 165 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,840 Speaker 3: is a flapper you know, to the game, and then 166 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 3: singing the same damn song and acting more or less 167 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 3: the same damn way. 168 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: Fuck Auburn and LSU and Tennessee too. That's course, these 169 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:32,120 Speaker 1: courses are our future leaders. I weep for the country again. 170 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:35,160 Speaker 3: When I was at Cambridge studying chaucer, our chant was 171 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,880 Speaker 3: harass them, harass them, make them relinquish the ball. 172 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:43,839 Speaker 1: Sounds like fun. Well, I guess that's it.