Dalrymple raises the question after reading a curious fact about the World Cup:
When Germany beat Portugal by 4 – 0, the usage of a pornographic internet site in Germany declined by 60 per cent during the match, and did not recover its normal level for several hours afterwards. In Portugal, the use of the site (called YouPorn, no doubt a subsidiary of YouGov) declined by 40 per cent during the match but increased by 10 per cent over its usual level for several hours after the match.
I think it will be interesting to see what Big Data coughs up… I think pornography traffic is definitely the most important indicator of civilisational decline, by far.
It’s a great question, ‘is football a continuation…’ And it’s a question I’d love to see asked in schools, at least for the the sixteen and over age group.