Several anarchist and socialist leaders denounced the clubs as a maneuver by the bourgeoisie to forestall strikes and disguise class divisions. In the River Plate, once the English and the rich lost possession of the sport, the first popular clubs were organized in railroad workshops and shipyards. Bread and circus, circus without the bread: hypnotized by the ball, which exercises a perverse fascination, workers forget who they are and let themselves be led about like sheep by their class enemies. In contrast, many leftist intellectuals denigrate soccer because it castrates the masses and derails their revolutionary ardor. Animal instinct overtakes human reason, ignorance crushes culture, and the riffraff gets what they want. Possessed by the ball, working stiffs think with their feet, which is entirely appropriate, and fulfill their dreams in primitive ecstasy. The scorn of many conservative intellectuals comes from their conviction that soccer worship is precisely the superstition people deserve. In 1902 in London, Rudyard Kipling made fun of soccer and those who contented their souls with 'the muddied oafs at the goals.' Three-quarters of a century later in Buenos Aires, Jorge Luis Borges was more subtle he gave a lecture on the subject of immortality on the same day and at the same hour that Argentina was playing its first match in the 1978 World Cup. How is soccer like God? Each inspires devotion among followers and distrust in intellectuals.
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