Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The New Orleans Saints’ “bounty” program and violence in American sports

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The New Orleans Saints’ “bounty” program and violence in American sports

Click here to access article by David Walsh from World Socialist Web Site.

I think that most people are completely unaware how the top social strata in a hierarchically designed system affects every other element in that system. The capitalist system, which is based on the private ownership of socially produced wealth, functions precisely this way. Here is an illustration of how the One Percent's interest in more profit and power affects the sports sector and leads to some of the grossest practices.

On March 2, the National Football League (NFL) issued a statement detailing the findings of a lengthy investigation into a “bounty” program operated by an assistant coach and between 22 and 27 defensive players on the New Orleans Saints during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.