In 1987, during a dark period in English soccer, a Manchester City Football Club fan, Frank Newton, brought a five-foot inflatable banana to a game. This sparked a trend of other fans bringing inflatable sharks, airplanes and wading pools, as a way to cope with the team’s notorious failure. Fast forward to 2012 when the team was bought by a billionaire, and they won the Premier League title for the first time since 1968. But…are inflatable toys still a feature of their games? Read full article here
Culture
The Priest in the Arena
The phrase “man in the arena” has been popularized in recent years, but a lesser known, more dangerous archetype is the “priest in the arena”. This figure is responsible for a process called theocratic capture, where an institution surrenders to a cult demanding unaccountable authority, fueled by claims to privileged knowledge. These cults often target powerful institutions and attempt to monopolize conversations with scaremongering tactics and hostile treatment of allies. It is important to identify and stop theocratic capture before it can gain control. Read full article here
Merv
May 29, 2023
