Lost in The Supermarket

Dancing is precisely a question of subordinating the body to "arbitrary laws" - and eventually, after the punishing dedication that Jackson put in, that subordination yields an inspiration that grips and micro-directs the body. A different model of freedom emerges here to the neoliberal one, which centres on the "choice" that Jackson promoted when he turned "Billie Jean" into a commercial for Pepsi. Singing about choice, performing in a dead live show: "a stiff, impersonal, over-rehearsed supper club act blown up with lasers and sonic booms....[And how many entertainment 'spectaculars' of the last twenty years does that sum up?] Michael Jackson, who began this year as a dancer, turned into a piece of wood." (Marcus) But what if he had stayed a dancer? What if his moves could have been extricated from that supper-club spectacle? What if the young black man in those Off The Wall videos had not disappeared?

This is how K-Punk finished his piece on Michael Jackson's death, a piece I pointed to the last time I wrote on Ronaldo. With the spectacle that was Ronaldo's Real Madrid unveiling last night do we not see exactly the same thing? The enormous effort and dedication that is required to create inspiration seems as fitting to the sublimity of football as it does to dancing, and the spectacle which takes over from this inspiration, a spectacle wholly fitting to the capitalist mode. It is perhaps too early to say this, but with Ronaldo at the centre of the spectacle can we not paraphrase Marcus here - "Ronaldo, who began the year as a footballer, turned into a piece of wood."
It is spectacle for the sake of spectacle. This is obvious from the very galactico policy, it is not so much about creating a team but about creating The Team, a spectacle of a team, one is tempted to say a simulacra:

It is no longer a question of imitation, nor of reduplication, nor even of parody. It is rather a question of substituting signs of the real for the real itself. (Jean Baudrillard)

Instead of "organically" creating a great team, it is enough to simply buy galacticos as a sign that this is a great team. It is a symbol of (the) Real, not (the) Real thing in itself. The greatness of Real is not about the team, the history, the achievements anymore, it becomes something else. It seems very much a case of where once greatness came from within, now greatness is recreated from outside - "substituting signs of the real (Madrid) for the real (Madrid) itself." And this, as Perez admits, is all about creating a brand, making money, the Galacticos are not there because of their football skill - that is a mere by-product - they are there for the revenue they will create for the team. Doesn't winning trophies ultimately become secondary here as well - even if they win nothing, they still have all these players who people will pay to see, to worship, and if they are tarnished by the lack of silverware, well, buy in replacements, there's always more galacticos...
Last night 80,000 people turned up to see Ronaldo, and I'm not going to cast doubt on the authenticity of their devotion to Real, but isn't there a sense that they were not really there to see Ronaldo, but to see themselves seeing Ronaldo? The spectacle is what they went for, - Ronaldo the footballer was just an afterthought, it was Ronaldo the spectacle they wanted.

'In a statement Real said Ronaldo's unveiling "could very well make history."'

And being a part of this history is what 80,000 people wanted. History is announced before it happens, in the same way that Michael Jackson's last concerts were "historic" from the moment they were announced, so Ronaldo's transfer was a spectacle even before it was announced. Everyone involved is obsessed with its history, from Ronaldo's talk about the historical figure of the transfer fee, to Real's historical unveiling. The transfer fee becomes a direct part of this spectacle and as such is very much involved in the ideological underpinning of capitalism - money is no longer just an arbitrary means of exchange, but becomes the essential measure of worth. Can one imagine a situation where we offered Ronaldo to Real for £20 million and they would have said, "no, for such a historic transfer £80 million is the lowest we're prepared to go..."
Here's the video of the presentation -



The whole thing is set up as a spectacle bigger than the man being unveiled. The self-awareness, "what is happening tonight might not have a precedent"; the high attendence "represents the pure essence of this new Real Madrid," and it is true, the pure essence of the new Real Madrid is precisely this spectacle - they, the fans, are "the true stars" Perez says without irony at the ridiculous unveiling of Ronaldo, and yet he has stumbled on the truth, even as he reveals the "mythical" Eusebio; the reference to the Portuguese element in the crowd come to pay their respects, the spectacle is not just about Madrid, but about the World (to continue the MJ theme, "We are The World").
Ronaldo's comments continue in his usual vein of accepting his place in history, "this is truly impressive". (As an aside, the commentator on the video claims that Ronaldo was named after Ronald Reagan, which I'd never heard before and which I find completely insane)
And then there's this video -



Where Ronaldo demonstrates his inability to juggle the ball with his feet (starts about 2:30 mark). He ends up scampering across the stage chasing the ball, not once, but twice. Displaying the difference between the man and the spectacle very well: "Ronaldo, who began the year as a footballer, turned into a piece of wood."