Kottke agrees that Zidane is some sort of hero for head butting Matzerati. That’s How It Happened wrote the following:
[Zidane's] willingness to headbutt Materazzi makes him more of a hero, not less. Admittedly, since France went on to lose, he’s something of a tragic hero, but a hero none-the-less. If someone insulted my race, or my religion (if I had one), I wish I’d be as ready to attack them, no matter what the circumstances. Zidane’s action highlights for the world the fact that the racial unity of France is more important than winning the World Cup.
That is bullshit. You rise above the insult, you defend your religion or race with intellect and actions that befit the pride and stature of it. By head butting you are putting weight behind the insult, acknowledging you can only reply with violence. I’ve been called some seriously insulting things for being a white South African. At least a terrorist has a cause, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and all that, but there is no arguement for being a racist (I am not one but am lumped in with all other white South Africans as being one.) I’ve never head butted someone for insulting me and yet I have never been on television at a major event in front of hundreds of millions of people with a decade long, glorious career and the weight of being a role model behind me.
Materazzi needs to be dealth with properly but Zidane does too. Both are wrong.
