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Articles & Blogs Home That Special Relationship ... Schadenfreude ... Poverty ... Memory ...   ON BRAZIL That Special Relationship/Parallel Universes/Pause Control by Robert Reid Disclaimer: This is very pretentious. If it were elementary school, the author would deserve to be punched and taunted during recess Just before his death, Otto Van Bismarck (yes, that one) was asked what he thought would be the prime dynamic in shaping modern history. He answered simply: “America speaks English.” Much to rest of the world’s resentment, “that special relationship” between the US and UK has been the world’s defining geopolitical, economic, and cultural reality for a long time, and will be for a long time. From the Bank of England/JP Morgan, Churchill/FDR, Thatcher/Reagan, Blair/Clinton, Stones/Muddy Waters, to Bond/Felix, “that special relationship” has been obvious to all. When the chips are down both the US and the UK know where to go, and its not the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs’ Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) Sub-Committee on EU Government Bills and Bonds Markets 3rd quarter meeting in Brussels. The political and cultural ties, tradition, manners, and common culture have continued, interrupted only by the War of 1812, the UK’s cowardly defection to the metric system, and England midfielder Frank Lampard’s post-9/11 drunken behavior. Also, Americans like queuing up and Tony Blair is the only one keeping America from going totally Texan-totalitarian on Lampard and everyone else with an impure 9/11 thought. But this is about soccer, and there is another special relationship for the US that is just out of sight. Not English soccer- thanks for the hordes of UK coaches that helped America get going in soccer and 1999 Manchester United, but that’s enough. America does not need another English coach telling our children about a 1983 game against Sheffield Wednesday. As any sociologist worth her salt knows, the other reference points for the US besides the British Empire are the Roman Empire and… Brazil. The “special relationship” in question concerns the athletic/spiritual traditions of the US and Brazil, one that is rarely on anyone’s mind, yet could determine the next half-century of soccer. If an infinite number of parallel universes actually exist, as world’s leading theoretical physicists believe, then Brazil and the US must know about each other in one of them. They’re almost the same size and same place in the same time with all of the cultural variables flipped: Northern v. Southern hemisphere, Protestant v. Catholic religion, Anglo v. Latin origin, and on and on. If Brazil is a “rich country full of poor people,” the US is a rich country full of the richest people. Histories are similar: European colonies (successful and failed), inter-European warfare, conquest of indigenous peoples, slave importation, agrarian wealth, westward frontiers, European immigration, industrial economics, and on and on. When it comes to sport, why do a highly disproportionate amount of the transcendent ones come from these two countries? You know, the Jesse Owens, Leonidas, Alis, Peles, Jordans, Ronaldinhos- the ones who inspire, obliterate the old limitations, and change the way we think. And why do these figures come from African-descended, new-world cultures? These groups of African descendents similar to the countries they live in, whether the strict 1/8 blood-by-law in the US or myriad racial categories in Brazil, have also led strangely a parallel existence. Both were introduced to Western society through the horrors of 18th Century slavery, abolished in the US in 1865, Brazil in 1888. Both were forced into a difficult agrarian existence, post-abolition subsistence farming, then similarly ignored and neglected. Both were left out of fun, nationalist slogans like “melting pot,” and “racial democracy,” segregated in the US, “whitened” in Brazil. Both, when the opportunity arose to improve their lot then migrated in mass to the big cities. Like a neat equatorial mirror image, the US flow went from the dusty South to industrial North (Chicago, New York, Detroit); in Brazil the migration went from the dusty North to industrial South (Rio, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte). In these new environs both were then comfortably ensconced in very safe, luxurious urban districts supplemented by the best schools society could provide, then given generous hiring preferences over recent European immigrants to help start a new life. Similarly, a quick examination of cultures reveals close parallels. From an auditory and kinetic perspective we see: capoeira baterias/call and responses, spirituals/Maracatu, ragtime/Lundu, jazz/samba, rap/funk. Its all the same- we may be broke but we have a good time. And just to make it interesting, we’ll also use whatever boring European instrument the oppressor (in whatever age or place) has lying around. Just as John Coltrane took a showtune and turned it into a high point of Western Civilization, Leonidas took a stiff aristocratic game, added a new kind of dribble derived from dance (and a “bicycle” kick), and made it into what were watching in Germany. Furthermore, these cultural parallels occur during the same means of production eras. A slave on the plantation and need to cope and hide your culture? Try some capoeira baterias/call and response. Just freed? Maybe the spirituals/Maracatu will be comforting. Just moved to the big city? Have fun with Jazz/Samba- before its labeled sinful and decadent. Got some white folks that are curious and want to dance too? Ragtime/Lundu. Sick of the violent post-modern ghetto and have a mixing board next to the AK’s lying around the house? Break all the rules and celebrate drug dealing with rap/funk. Because of language and distance there are not strong connections between US and Brazil, let alone between the African descendents- the poorest in both societies. This question of African-descended athletes arose from one of the scant connections- a Guardian profile of Ronaldinho revealed that his idol is Magic Johnson of the Lakers, the no-look passes a direct tribute to Johnson by studying his moves (Nike or a US news outlet couldn’t report this?). Ronaldinho is taking the game to another place. This is significant to world soccer- what happens when the opposite happens and the African-American athlete gets a hold of Ronaldinho tapes and spends countless hours trying to copy him? Pause, slow-mo, pause. Where does the game then go? The common origin of the parallel, African-descended cultures is a viewpoint and sense of movement brought from Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal. It all returns to the euphoric African ancestral spiritual movements, what later evolved into dance. The tradition lives on across the Atlantic in new forms: fusing Catholicism and Africa gives you Brazilian Umbanda; fusing the Protestant Reformation and Africa gives you the American Black Baptist Church. There is an undeniably spiritual element in these cultures. Back to the physicists (and ready for ridicule): not only do they believe parallel universes exist, but that there are 11 dimensions, most of them just out of plain sight but just as real (if you aren’t tenured at Cambrige, Oxford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, of the University of Chicago, don’t bother arguing). As Mies van der Rohe said “architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space,” spirit-derived African dance may be the consciousness of one of these dimensions translated into movement. This you definitely can argue with, but keep in mind one of the big-time physicists said that the “primitive” mystic view of the universe may have been right (cue playground punch into author’s stomach). Fortunately it’s the internet and you can write silly and thoroughly unsubstantiated things often as you like. Yes it’s pretentious, but as the 1970 Brazil great Tostao recently stated, Brazilian greatness comes from “the superior imagination” and “the imaginative unconscious of Brazilian football, transmitted down from one generation to the next.” Whatever it is, African-derived cultures display an awareness of something more transpired into physical movement- call it American soul, Brazilian ginga, whatever you want. I prefer “soul” for two reasons, 1) it is the culture I’m most familiar with, and 2) 90% of us are pretty sure we have one, pretty sure it’s the thing that lies just out of plain sight (except the godless Czech Republic, who just sent the US straight to hell, 3-0) You probably don’t know about your ginga. This African movement stuff is only part of the equation of the success of athletes in the US and Brazil. The success of Peles and Jordans is based on another factor common to these societies, the European-African cultural mix. The US and Brazil have done an exemplary job harnessing the best of both. The intersection between African-derived movement and improvisation and European empiricism and organization is a lethal mix to the rest of the world who usually only possess one tradition. You always hear about the “enchanting” and “magical” (African) talents of Pele and Ronaldinho, but rarely about the organizational genius behind them. Take the 1958 Brazil World Cup Team for example. The CBF’s (Brazilian Football Federation) extraordinary psychological, physiological, and tactical innovations are totally ignored, usually in favor of the word “Samba.” The words “Copacabana,” “beach,” and “ball,” are bouncier than the words “individualized,” “psychometric,” and “assessments.” If you combine the 1957 Soviet Sputnik2 Team with the 1992 NBA Olympic Dream Team, you probably get the 1958 Brazilian Team. The 1958 Brazil team was so far ahead of everyone else both on and off the field in every aspect that it, relatively speaking, is the best team in World Cup history. What will happen as the US-Brazil divide narrows, when a new “special relationship” arises? The distance divide can be partially overcome with communications technology- the US has lots of it. The language divide is different. Maybe since Brazilians like telenovelas so much they can learn English from “Footballers Wives.” Americans are too busy with nanotechnology, and we can’t be bothered to learn other, silly-sounding languages. Brazil, with a much less insular viewpoint has always taken the lead on this, from the 1970’s Afro-consciousness movement and funk parties to the current NBA loyalties. We’re seeing the divide slooowly crossed- the aforementioned Ronaldinho and his Magic Johnson tapes, the Jordan-worship, the BET rap pose. Soccer is king, but Brazilian players are starting to pop up in the NBA- the movement is familiar. One of them, Barbosa, just led the Phoenix Suns past the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs. Odds are we won’t be seeing a kid from Philly lead Flamengo past Corinthians anytime soon, but at least the odds were considerably shortened13 years ago when a young striker from the Florida projects named Eddie Johnson (7 goals in his first 7 US games) learned that Pele was black too. As US ‘inner city’ soccer slooowly gains momentum, these kids won’t be looking to Stig Töfting and Denmark for inspiration. The US probably won’t win the 2010 World Cup as our fancy, well-funded, multi-decade plan (predictably called “Project 2010,”) dictates because unlike the 1958 Brazil team, we left out half the equation. As Jere Longman of the New York Times stated, “basketball is played with jazzy improvisation in this country, but soccer's suburban orientation often creates a fife-and-bugle regimentation.” Maybe the US game is stuck in mediocrity because there’s nothing to stir the soul. We chose raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens over Coltrane as our favorite thing. Bruce Arena, the US coach, says things like, “we're nöt the möst talented team in the world…but we are öne of the möst cömpetitive, with the best spirit, the fittest…” Talk like this may have stirred the 1950’s Indiana farm boys playing basketball in the movie “Hoosiers,” but it is foreign to the hip-hop kids, black, white, and Latino. He may as well be speaking Portuguese. It’s certainly foreign to the nine year-old mini-stud who lives down the block from me- he wins in a lot of sports and you know why. But he likes soccer the most and just made his regional team as striker (with an English coach, naturally). I’ll burn him some DVD’s of Ronaldinho, 1997 Ronaldo, 1982 Zico, 2003 Robinho. Pause, slow-mo, pause. Who knows where the game goes once American kids are regularly exposed to Brazilians that like to move and invent just like they do. It certainly won’t be a cheap “Samba” football knock-off- that’s the usual underestimation of these kids. It may be fierce and utterly original hip-hop soccer. It may be a refined riff and improvisational, harmonic Miles Davis soccer. If history is any judge, it will certainly be something to watch, something to lift the soul. Thirteen years after all American kids learn that soccer resides in the imagination, as in Brazil, not a suspiciously clean 2004 minivan, we may see a US-Brazil World Cup Final. Do you have a comment on this article. Send us an email () with your comments and we'll put it up here. To Top Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life Email: Copyright © 2005 by Alex Bellos. Published by Bloomsbury, New York and London. Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers.