The Commanders Will Have to Make a Name for Themselves

I'm not sure what the beef is about the Washington NFL franchise's nickname. It has to be Snyder Hatred.

Because it seems to me that "Commanders" is about as generic, therefore politically uncontroversial, as a nickname can get. I suppose if you are anti-war you might find it militaristic. That is if you equate being anti-war with being anti-military. I'm anti-war but not anti-military. I'm stiffly against Chickenhawk pro-war ivory tower types writing academic screeds about projecting power and poking bears playing G.I. Joes with our men and women in uniform. Sending everybody's kid to war but their own.

Everybody bleeds for their theories but them.

I suppose the same situation happens with the word "Warriors". There are sports writers who wince at war terminology being used in football. Football is a war substitute. So is Chess. If the drive to murder people gets processed in sports like football or hocky or MMA and does not escalate to the level of war I'd say let's do sports. It's an old psychoanalytic process called sublimation and it contributes to de-escalation. It is a good. It is a virtue. 

People say we're human beings and not animals. But I'd contest that as well. It is obvious from the constant horror championed by the News that human beings are beasts. Even rabid lions seem to have better self-control.

Unless we make the conversion to cyborgism, we will always have as a task of living the job of taming our animal nature. The desire to be superhuman or transhuman is not a desire but a hatred. A hatred of the self. A hatred of animals. A hatred of biology. A hatred of life. 

Ultimately, it is a cop out and a heavy loss. To augment or destroy entirely our animal nature. The value of our animal nature lies in its being a classroom to learn and practice the virtues. It is a challenging process and it is lifelong. But if you develop a handle on your animal nature you have a shot at the harmony you think you are getting by automating your animality. That's a harmony with no work behind it and no real education. 

In fact, it is the opposite of education. It is delusion. Not to mention dead as a door nail.

So what is in a name? Why do football? Seems like you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. The name will always be outrageous because football itself is inexcusable. So is your animal nature. So are animals.

Animal abuse is always emblematic of profound self-hatred. Just because we can now abuse our animal nature in highly technological ways doesn't mean the abuse is justified. And just because we can complete the transition from human to machine doesn't make it any less a murder than blowing somebody's head off.

Seems like if you apologize for the name you apologize for the sport. And the NFL is sometimes insultingly image conscious so much so that why you do football gets lost in green room make-up.  

Mr. T once said: "I pity the fool who tries to take what I got."

That's football. People are going to try to take what you got. They have agressive feelings toward you. They want to beat you to a pulp. Mr. T accepts the challenge and meets it head on. He's got to have discipline. He can't overextend. He can't punch himself to exhaustion. 

You have to deal with fear, anger, outrage, pain, failure, and success. Sometimes you roll. Sometimes you endure. Sometimes you disgrace yourself. But you walk out at the end. And you've done something. You overcame or you will learn to overcome another day.

And whole populations haven't been blown out of existence because you are too ruling class to get your hands dirty.

It would have been nice to find a name that tied into and/or honored the memory of the players of the Redskin Era. They built a heritage and a following. They were exemplars of the football virtues. They were themselves "commanding" presences. 

But outside of keeping the colors or even audaciously naming the team "The Washington Burgundy and Gold," I don't see how a name can do the job of claiming that heritage.

Which in a sense is good. I am arguing for the desirability of the "strenuous life" here.

That means it just may be the Commanders will have to make a name for themselves.