Acting the goat has lost its value

National Socialist Party of Germany, more widely known as the Nazis.

To the Nazis culture was about velvet jacketed effeminate poets,

wimpish novelists, and philosophers who sought to enlighten the masses

with complicated definitions of the truth. They fed the masses easy to

absorb certitudes about supermen, the master race, the destiny of blood,

and other such crap.

Throughout the Western World the word culture has been truncated to

mean laudable things like the Edinburgh Festival, Opera, Ballet,

Symphonic music, ''Serious'' Theatre, ''Serious'' Literature, Poetry,

and the Visual Arts -- which is also nonsense.

This word is correctly used by anthropologists who talk of culture as

meaning the totality of a society and its workings, including its

economy, modes of production, commerce, jurisprudence, religions,

philosophies, and its arts.

The origins of art are well documented. Music and poetry in primitive

societies were linked with work. Hunters and the chase. Among pastoral

peoples the habits of domesticated animals. Labour which involved groups

led to rhythmic dance and chants.

The earliest dramatic performances involved acts essential to the

struggle for an existence beyond subsistence. Animals played a key role

so we have murals in caves of the animals man hunted or husbanded, and

sometimes of animals that hunted man. Actors used animal masks in what

were essentially animal pantomimes.

This was the origin of ancient Greek drama. The goat was a fundamental

element in the economic life of ancient Greece. The Greek word for goat

is tragos from which is derived the word tragedy.

This is a marvellous thought and pierces the mustiness of academic

pedants. Theatrical tragedies started with the goat.

Art reflects the wider culture of human society. It is rooted in the

life of real people. If this is so then there can be no legitimacy in

art for art's sake. Art is for the sake of humanity and there is no

nobler calling.

Any human capable of surpassing excellence, in any field of endeavour,

is an artist. Pele, Di Stefano, Puskas, Cruyff and what they could do

with a piece of inflated leather, was, in its own way, as artistic as

what Yehudi Menuhin could do with a piece of wood and some animal gut.

Over the years, football, at its very best, has developed into an art

form. Unfortunately, Scottish football has missed out on this

development. We are a light year, or two, behind.

Hence the lamentations when Glasgow Rangers got trounced by Juventus.

The shock evinced by some commentators was hard to understand. Rangers

had no chance before the game, and had no chance during the game.

Our football authorities are trying to eliminate the skill deficit in

our game, and good luck to them, but there is a deeper problem that is

not being tackled and maybe it's something beyond their compass. There

is a sub-culture in Scottish football, it's probably been around for

years, which is dragging the game down into a gutter from which no good

can come.

It is composed of foul mouthed men whose lingua Franca is an

uninterrupted flow of effing and ceeing, with frequent references to

male and female genitalia. Macho braggarts who believe they are the

working class lifeblood of the game.

They are not working class but lumpen proletarians, that tiny section

of the working class that has become brutalised and desensitised. They

smoulder with a mindless aggression that erupts before, during, and

after games.

Let the BBC or Commericial Television in Scotland do what I've been

advocating for years. Get a camera with a couple of sound men in the

crowd and let us see in close-ups the faces distorted with hate, and

hear language that for sheer bestiality defies description.

These people are not really interested in good football. Crude ersatz

excitement is their goal. They want end to end football and don't give a

damn how the ball gets from one end to the other. A big blooter will

suffice and then plenty of scrimmaging and jostling in the penalty box.

If a Scottish team tries to play studied football, they are hissed.

I'VE heard Scottish managers shouting at their players, after a game,

in a stream of personally abusive four letter words. If a gaffer had

spoken to any worker in a factory or yard in this way, the punters would

have walked out, and yet it's acceptable in Scottish football. I asked

one manager why they did this and he told me: ''It's the only language

they understand.'' If his is true what does that say of our players, and

their intelligence?

Let's get one thing clear. I swear and everyone I know swears but

there is a quantum difference between how the ordinary bloke swears, and

these lumpen types. I get excited by good football and get really

excited when a Scottish team is doing it, nowadays a rather infrequent

experience, but unalloyed joy is qualitatively different from the

obscene triumphalism so manifest in the lumpens.

On Tuesday evening I went with some friends for a meal prior to the

game between Rangers and Aberdeen. In one part of the pub Aberdeen

supporters were giving Gazza hawmaw in the cruellest of fashions. In

another part Rangers supporters were giving Roman Catholics hawmaw with

what is euphemistically called ''party songs''.

What I'm saying is that imparting skills and hopefully the art of

football to our youngsters is of no use if they are to practice their

skills in an atmosphere dominated by lumpen louts. We need to attract

back to the game good working class guys, their families, and THEIR

culture. The lumpens should be chased away by the clubs, the police, and

good fans. They tarnish everything they touch, even the beautiful game.