How Exactly Did Soccer Explain the World?

Time to discuss Foer’s How Soccer Explains the World. During the World Politics’ class discussion, it was difficult to decipher if we reached any consensus whatsoever about his “unlikely theory of globalization.” So I would like to use this reflective blog to bring up the points in the book that I found most interesting.

I believe that his use of soccer as a means of presenting his argument was an original idea that established his pros and cons about globalization in a simple and coherent manner. It is important to note that the fact that he organized the book from the negative to the positive, proves that overall he is pro-globalization. If his purpose were to convince us that globalization is the bane of the world, as we know it, then he would not have finished it off with the stories of the Iranian football revolution.

However, his argument was not that simple, especially with the use of soccer as a metaphor for globalization. Foer obviously resents the anti-soccer sentiment rampant throughout the U.S. and he argues that this issue derives from America’s superiority complex. On the last page he admits that this country is unique in its experiences, however “it is not exceptionally immune to globalization” (248) He attempts to humble America through the idea that we fight about globalization “just like everyone else” presented in the book (248). We are affected by globalization and soccer as much as we try to deny it.