Best Bitter-End

As a youngster I regarded George Best as a hero and was disappointed when he went awol and then retired prematurely from Man Utd.I used to be a bit of a footballer at school and many rated me as having some Best like attributes,but I lost interest in football when he hung up his boots in ' 72. However should we not set aside childish things in adulthood? The hagiographical media worship of Best is surely the sign of a society with its moral compass awry. Sport and entertainment has become the new God in the abscence and rejection of the real one.It really is true: when people don't believe in God they end up believing in anything and worshipping the wrong God.They even use religious terminology such as rock and sporting 'idols'.(Yes I will probably be watching the X Factor as well tonight but even whilst doing so I can recognise the false and contrived emoting,the manufactured sentiment and the mild hysteria surrounding it, knowing that it is not to put it mildly, altogether healthy). With the press practically camped outside the hospital waiting for Best to die and giving endless updates of his condition the media has surely plumbed new depths of the macabre.