This Sporting Life

A self-made man who, with his own strength (not metaphorically), freed himself from the captivity of mining towers and factory chimneys, parks his Jaguar Mk IX in front of an ordinary worker's house, and his life could now finally mean comfort, entertainment, and freedom. In the 1960s, during the time of the last hurrah of the British working class, a film was created about a miner who had that life within his grasp and could have become the embodiment of the free-market meritocracy principle – but he did not take the final step. Not only were those factory chimneys still visible from the rugby field (metaphor - the main character failed to integrate into the gilded world of the upper classes, insincere for a vigorous man), but more importantly: integration into a world where you are only respected as much as your last goal, as accurately described, offers only superficial/ulterior/self-serving/etc. favor from someone who you do not care for, and the main character only cared about a person who ultimately did not care about him. The melodramatic tragic culmination not only of the main character but of the entire good old English working class - they desired not only comfort in life but also authenticity (in this case the widow Margaret Hammond), which they did not obtain. In contrast, we have real history: Margaret H. did not obtain it, but just under a generation later, Margaret Thatcher did obtain it. Thatcher not only gave the working class a new update on the false meritocratic dream but also made it difficult or perhaps even destroyed the possibility of Mrs. Hammond obtaining it. (02/14/2015)