The BBC's Useful Idiots

[andy steel 0]

In political jargon, useful idiot is a pejorative term used to describe people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they do not understand, who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause.

 

Although the time when any self respecting Rangers fan could tune in to Radio Scotland is long gone, I still enjoy having 'Off the Ball' on while I polish the car of a Saturday lunchtime. Well, I enjoy bits of it, or used to...before they, or rather Stuart, decided to join the ranks of obsessives who can talk of little other than Rangers, all day every day.

 

He was never the reason I listened. Like most, I reckon, I tuned in for Tam's humour, which, while hard to take sometimes when it's your team on the receiving end, is really needed in the dismal, bitter world of our football (all clubs, us too, included). What Cosgrove brings to the show, other than the ability to roar into a microphone so loudly you don't actually know what he's saying, I don't know. Sure ain't humour!

 

I missed the last couple of shows, but according to another forum Stuart has bought into the revolution theory sweeping all before it at present. An epistemological change, is how it was described. Would that it were so! Revolutions often start out with the highest of hopes, only to fall into the same traps and foibles of whatever regime they changed. And the history of revolutions in this country isn't so great, either.

 

It's a historical irony that the last revolution was brought about by Rangers, the Souness era of 86-on being credited with saving the game from dwindling into League of Ireland status. Considering the same fear is being voiced at present, you can see how successful that was, both for us and the game as a whole. Not a great advert for the concept of revolution, you might think.

 

The Rangers support were certainly taken for a ride by the architects of that revolution, especially our fallen and disgraced leader, David Murray. As long as we were winning I didn't care, so I certainly qualify for useful idiot status during those years. What's surprising is considering the abuse we receive from others for not having our eyes open, they are more than willing to fall into pretty much the same trap.

 

Any notion that the fans were running the game must surely be dispelled by the gerrymandering of the leagues currently under way from SFA, SPL and SFL headquarters. Seemingly designed to prevent SPL clubs suffering financial realities during Rangers absence and to hurriedly propel Rangers back into a 'top flight', if that's not an oxymoron in Scottish terms, it goes against the wishes of all fans in the country, us included, who want to see division 3 and a rebuilding for The Rangers. Once again, it's all about the money - even those who consider the SFL somehow virtuous in this would do well to examine their list of demands before the agree to the rejigging (and jigging is the operative word!) suggested.

 

They want more money, and the chance to gain more money. It is, as it always is, about those who have money and those who want to get some. A 16 team league would be great, except there will be some more fiddling to ensure at least an extra Old Firm game for TV revenue purposes. A pyramid system would be great, except that Junior clubs don't want to join the professional game for social and insurance reasons. Strip away the idealogical manifesto and all you are left with is pound signs.

 

All revolutions need useful idiots, as Lenin is supposed to have said. This doesn't mean people like Stuart or his Tayside comrade, Soviet Jim Spence, are actually stupid, though in the case of the latter I wouldn't be so sure. It merely means that they have been manipulated, used, in order to fulfill an ulterior motive by those who actually pull the strings. That this is so clear now ought, you might think, to persuade them to draw back a little and see what is happening rather than what they would like to see happening. But in revolutions, you have realists and you have True Believers. It is not usually the latter who emerge from the dust and wreckage holding the reins of power, and it won't be this time either.

 

No doubt people will brush what we think aside, since we are evil Rangers fans. But we lived through a revolution and it did not end happily for us. Just don't say you weren't warned.

Edited July 12, 2012 by andy steel

[Frankie 8,186]

An excellent take on the situation.

 

As much as people want to blame SDM and Craig Whyte (and as much as they are right), where is the criticism of SPL chairmen and executives who have allowed our game to be based on a business model that appears to rely wholly on the Old Firm being successful?

[amms 0]

Great stuff Andy. Perhaps Cosgrove thinks he's Robespierre, an inauspicious ending awaits.

[Doc 280]

Great article. We were all duped by Murray and Whyte although some like Gersnet legend Cammy-F spotted it sooner than most.

 

The hypocrisy of the SPL voting us out and then expecting the SFL to rubber stamp a deal to preserve their TV deal is simply breathtaking. You could not make this up. We the supporters are the real victims here. Victims of robber-baron dictator owners who seem to have got off scot-free while the media have concentrated on doing their best to destroy our chances of recovering for years to come. All the bears I know want to start again in the 3rd division because it's the right thing to do. You don't hear that amid all the clamour for penalties and sanctions on the BBC. They abandoned their own "integrity" ages ago.