To Be Like Everyone Else, Only Better

This chapter on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which focuses on the US men's rather than the wonderfully successful women's team, derives its inspiration from an unexpected source. At the core of “To be like everyone else, only better,” is two Americans, of different generations, but linked in their thoughtful, culturally nuanced, and politically savvy refusal of nationalist jingoism. Salient about their rejection of flag-waving patriotism, however, is that it does not prohibit their support — by turns thoughtful and wonderfully enthusiastic — for the US team during the 2010 World Cup. Dissidents have to, whatever their ideological inclination, open themselves up to the world because there is no real place for them at home. The signal accomplishment of the 2010 men's US football team is that it was adopted by more than one generation.