DR Congo—Heart of the World Cup

Clicking around YouTube tonight I ran into footage of DR Congo football fans dancing on the patios outside their Atlanta hotels, having watched their team beat Uzbekistan today. They were fun and lively, good-natured guys, enjoying themselves fully. And seeing the word "Congo" on their fanwear, it came to me that these would be the guys Conrad talked about, who Kurtz settled into and was driven mad by their dark blankness. Except that they were partying at a pool bar in Atlanta, after having flown in from the heart of darkness a few days before. Looking it up, it wasn't until 1975 that Chinua Achebe pointed out how insanely racist it was for Conrad to use Africa as a pit of nihilism upon which the extremes of enlightenment ideals could be worked out. I have thought now for a while that with the Internet the entire world has been given the chance to see the Other, and without too much work has started putting together that there is absolutely no difference between peoples worth considering seriously. I like to think it will become more difficult to insist that there are blanket groups of people out there in the world that need killed; I feel like that is happening. Future readers: please note that I was not hopeful enough to make a prediction. I do not want to put the Congolese back down in the hole, but the odd side effect of the Other disappearing is that you recognize liberal ideology has been protecting them, and that is collapsing. On the Internet you find shitty people throughout the world. It doesn't matter what color, sex, class or nation—shitpeople are clogging up the machinery of History (in the most Hegelian sense). And it is obvious that they are not going anywhere soon. And with the consolidation of Capital, everyone across the planet recognizes becoming rich is the only way out of the New Misery that is rising with the boat. 90% of the planet lives on an event horizon where only Capital can fuel the rockets needed for their escape. That message has been received loud and clear, even in the heart of Africa. Don't worry about offending them: Congolese men are partying in Atlanta tonight because their team won and it is 2026.