It’s Trump vs the NFL, and We are All Losers

Because symbolic acts are visual they are often ambiguous.  They need to be interpreted.  But as soon as we need to think about them they become ineffective as symbols.

To gain potency, symbolic acts need to become unambiguous. When they do, they exert a powerful emotional appeal.  The use of national anthems is longstanding, and evokes feelings of piety, patriotism, gratitude, and sacrifice.

Any form of protest to such established symbols treads on dangerous ground.  That fact is of course what makes the choice to protest them a powerful symbol.

Unfortunately, the symbolism of the protest isn’t nearly as unambiguous as the symbol protested.

Many of the NFL players kneeling in protest appear to be upset that their actions are being interpreted in the worst possible light – as an unpatriotic, ungrateful, impious, self-centred display.

Their frustration is understandable insofar as many probably didn’t mean any such disrespect.

But people protesting established symbols cannot be naive about the possibility of misinterpretation.  After all, it is controversy that they are seeking.

It seems to me that the players were trying to hijack the use of an established symbol to draw attention to their cause.

What that cause is, however, is not clearly symbolized.  Is the purpose to protest against police brutality? To bring attention to Black Lives Matter?  To protest Trump? To protest institutional racism? To decry capitalism?

And in kneeling, are the players praying reverently, or acting irreverently?

In the absence of clarity, the irreverence seems the most apparent.

It seems that without a common social vision of the good, symbolic acts are almost necessarily divisive and inflammatory.  While it may be the players’ right to protest, that doesn’t make the protest right.

There has been a lot of heat and very little light shed on the kneeling protests by some NFL players, and the heat has now come to a boil with President Trump’s involvement, which is largely because he has chosen to see no ambiguity in the act.

It is an uncharitable response to a provocative act.

This, on the other hand, is a measured article, worthy of consideration.

It would be good to see cooler heads prevail.  I’m not sure that the Culture War in the United States will allow any such restraint.

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