A light in the darkness

[D'Artagnan 173]

Not only do we love to do names, we have become adept as a support at pigeon holing people. “****”, “Fan ****”, “ “Pro board” “Anti board” “The enemy within”, not forgetting the latest addition from the AGM - “Rats” - there seems little room for manoeuvre for those confused bears who wander around in a kind of no man’s land not knowing how to take the latest serving of propaganda from one of the various groups. In fact some would have you believe you are the “enemy within” if you dare to occupy that no man’s land, or more accurately, don’t agree with their viewpoint.

 

I’ve never been a fan of emotional, descriptive terms to stir up feelings – they are a very poor substitute for cold hard facts.

 

Ally’s shambolic departure was the perfect case in point. Some felt it necessary to leap to his defence as some kind of weapon against the board, whilst others indulged in less than complimentary negative emotional language. The sum total was to exacerbate an already extremely messy situation. I understand some even planned to sing “Super Ally” at the AGM in an effort to shame the board – you know at that point to wave goodbye to rational thought and reasoned thinking. A quick glance at our financial accounts, or the state of our club overall would tell you that we don’t need to sing songs glorifying a manager who has failed comprehensively to shame this board, the state of our club and the way they have “governed” is an indictment in itself.

 

The masochist in me delights at mentioning our on field problems, only because they serve to remind us we are a football club and not a soap saga, though it’s hard sometimes to differentiate in this day and age. But for a support already disillusioned with off field events the added component of a failing team only compounds the problem. It not only rips into but comprehensively invades the world of the supporter who cares not a jot for boardroom politics and falling attendances along with absent season ticket holders bear testimony to that. It is a dangerous concoction and one any normal board would do well to take cognisance of.

 

Of course some of us have seen it all before. It took David Holmes and a considerable amount of cash as well as revolutionary thinking to remedy the situation. Whether there is such an “out of the box” thinker or the necessary cash today is open to debate.

 

What is not open to debate is the debilitating effect of the omnishambles both on and off the park and sadly, I see little or no evidence to suggest that it is being addressed. So as you sow, so shall you reap.

 

Rangers is not a business, nor merely a football club it is way of life for so many of us. It’s not just about success on the park, it’s about the way the club conducts and carries itself, it’s about the standards it sets and seeks to uphold. We don’t wax lyrical about the “Rangers Way” for nothing. I’ve mentioned Harry Reid previously, an Aberdeen supporter who contributed to the book Born Under a Union Flag. Harry contributes much of the eroding of our standards and identity to the Murray years.

 

“A club’s identity, or, to be more highfalutin, its soul, is a particularly precious thing. Forfeit it and you lose everything. If a club becomes the plaything of over-ambitious folk who have no understanding of it, there is serious trouble ahead. If it becomes the plaything of people who have no knowledge of its traditions and its values, then the trouble can be noxious.”

 

I’d respectfully suggest we are now at security state “noxious” to use Harry’s words.

 

If I had a pound for every Rangers fan who has said to me our club bears little semblance to that which they grew up with well we wouldn’t need a lottery winner to have a Rangers man in charge. I even know of one dyed in the wool bear on Gersnet forums who even muted starting up all over again, such are the levels of disillusionment.

 

I’m reminded though of a chapter from Mary Pyper’s book “Writing to save the World”. She speaks of people displaced from the corridors of power, disempowered from the decision making processes, watching forlornly as, in some cases, their country’s become a mere shadow of what they once were. But rather than surrender or acquiesce to the unacceptable standards being foisted upon them, she directs the reader to those who have struggled to keep the social and moral conscience of their nation alive and in doing so ensure that the flame to which so many aspire to is never extinguished.

 

It is up to us, the Rangers support to do this. We have to carry that mantle, because quite simply there is no-one else fit for purpose at this moment in time. The standards and values we cherish so dearly should be applied to one and all consistently, without fear, without favour and without malice, these are the standards we were raised with and safeguarding them together, I dare anyone to try and take them away.

 

The greatest threat to that flame being extinguished is not from the SFA, the media, or any number of Rangers haters, the clear and present danger comes from ourselves and our inability to apply those standards we value so much, towards one another.

 

“There is more power in unity than division”

 

(Emanuel Cleaver)

Edited December 29, 2014 by D'Artagnan

[charltonman 19]

Excellent post Sir .

[Bluedell 5,624]

Part of the problem is that a section of the support bears little semblance to that which I grew up with.

 

Many see it as just another club with no respect for its traditions.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Bluedell

[compo 7,030]

sad to say there is no class on or off the park at rangers these days our own so called fans have done as much harm as the inept owners

[chilledbear 16]

sad to say there is no class on or off the park at rangers these days our own so called fans have done as much harm as the inept owners

 

As much as there are idiots in our support [always has been btw], the harm has been caused by the decision makers.

[Rangersitis 0]

A fine article, D'Artagnan. I also think that Bluedell makes a great observation about the support.

[JohnMc 2,750]

Nice post D'art. I'm struck by this line though "these are the standards we were raised with and safeguarding them together" and I find myself wondering how true this now is. I wonder if the real legacy of David Murray is a supplicant support. Nobody under 38 will really remember the pre-Murray era, to them a club like Rangers is run by a larger than life plutocrat who uses his private jet to impress possible signings and who runs the club with their own rod of iron, or steel in his case. We became so used to his apparent benevolent dictatorship many were simply 'raised with that standard' and struggle to function without it. The delight that many in our support showed for Craig Whyte initially underlines this. Too many simply welcomed his apparent wealth without questioning his suitability. We're seeing the same with Ashley, he's a billionaire I hear cried, as if that's the only criteria that matters.

Unfortunately, for many, it is.

 

What I don't know is how to change that.