There is a moment in AMC’s Breaking Bad when Skyler White tells Walter that she accepts he has her boxed in. He has trapped her so completely that she no longer knows how to react, and then she tells him that, because all her other options have been exhausted, she has been reduced to just one: waiting for him to die.
It is one of the most devastating lines in the whole show because it marks the complete collapse of what was once a happy relationship. When your significant other has reached the point where their remaining hope rests on you no longer being around, there probably is not much room left for reconciliation.
Earlier this week, one of our websites published an excellent article about Dermot Desmond and suggested that our hope now lies in the actuarial table.
I loved that line. It was exactly the sort of dry official language a senior politician would be proud to use, not because it confused anybody but because it was a very polite way of saying something which, expressed bluntly, would sound crass, insensitive and perhaps even grotesque.
And it is pretty much what Skyler White says to her husband.
Fans are sitting around waiting for Dermot Desmond to shuffle off his mortal coil.
If that sounds too obtuse, I will put it in black and white: fans are waiting for him to die. That is not a sentence I should ever have had to write, and it is not a thought any Celtic supporter should ever have been driven towards. But I do not think you will find many of those who have harboured it pretending that they did not mean it.
It is not polite to say. It is not nice to say. It is one of the most appalling things you can say about another human being, but let us not bullshit each other. We have all had thoughts in our lives which we would rather not admit to.
Over at The Bulwark, one of my favourite American political outlets, they openly joke about what they call the “hamburger from heaven” — the one which gives Donald J. Trump a massive cardiac arrest and saves America from the final two years of his presidency.
Notice what they are not saying.
Nobody is saying the guy should be murdered or helped along the way. Nobody is talking about pushing him in front of a car, throwing him off a bridge or dripping poison into his caviar. They are talking about the natural order of things.
That is what the reference to Desmond and the actuarial table is about.
What is the life expectancy of a man in his 70s, living the life he lives, with his lifestyle and stress levels? When you look at Trump’s diet and the pace at which he lives, some people inevitably wonder how long that can continue. Nobody is suggesting an assassin’s bullet. The hamburger from heaven is exactly what the phrase says it is: an act of God.
Perhaps we live in an age that is too coarse. Perhaps we live in a time when nothing is off limits, and perhaps some things ought to be. But the hamburger from heaven is not an original thought.
Similar sentiments have existed throughout history about people regarded as immovable or beyond the reach of ordinary mechanisms.
I am sure there were people all over the world who hoped Adolf Hitler might simply fall down the stairs at the Reich Chancellery one morning and break his neck. How much suffering would that have spared?
These thoughts are not new. Nor, in the abstract, are they particularly unusual.
I do not believe Dermot Desmond’s control of Celtic is a benign phenomenon. In fact, it is very clearly, in my view, malignant. It strangles the club and creates a humiliating environment for everybody who has to operate in constant proximity to him because, as we discussed the other day, he does not appear to be a man who places much value on opinions which conflict with his own.
When somebody exerts that much influence and gets major decisions as badly wrong as I believe Desmond increasingly does, the consequences are inevitable. It does not matter whether his intentions are good as he sees them. The damage is still real.
And he shows no inclination to stop inflicting it.
The media and everyone around Celtic constantly tell us there is no mechanism for removing him. He has given no indication that he intends voluntarily to surrender his shares. I know there are people working in the background trying to construct alternatives, make offers and persuade him to part with them, but if he remains steadfast and there is no force capable of compelling him to sell, what exactly are we supposed to think?
Are we simply supposed to turn our club over indefinitely to this megalomaniac? Are we supposed to sit back and acquiesce because nobody can prise his fingers away from the controls? No.
There is one mechanism which removes everybody eventually, and it has been doing so since time immemorial. Kings, dictators, billionaires, politicians and ordinary people are all subject to it.
The calendar — or the actuarial table, if you prefer — takes care of everyone in the end.
It does not matter that this is not polite conversation. It does not matter that these are not thoughts respectable people are supposed to admit to thinking. Human beings routinely have thoughts which frighten them, embarrass them or make them uncomfortable. That is simply part of how our minds work.
This is the reason psychological evaluations sometimes contain questions along the lines of, “I sometimes have thoughts that scare me or make me uncomfortable.” People trip themselves up by ticking No because they think that must be the correct answer, when the real test is whether they are prepared to admit to something almost everybody experiences.
We all have those thoughts.
But I will tell you who these particular thoughts should be instructing in their decision-making: the Desmond family, who may once have imagined that some version of a benign dictatorship could continue indefinitely, perhaps even beyond Dermot himself.
Brother, when people are openly counting the years until you are no longer here because they believe that is literally the only thing capable of prising your fingers off the doorknob, those people are not coming back to you any time soon.
That relationship is not going to be repaired by another statement, another appointment or another assurance that everything is under control.
The historical verdict on you is going to be dreadful. You will not be remembered by those people as the saviour of Celtic or the man who brought stability. You risk being remembered as the man whose grip on the club became so intolerable that supporters openly longed for your death.
And it has reached the point where plenty of people are not even embarrassed to say that out loud.
Maybe that is worth reflecting on. Maybe it is worth asking how you got from one place to another and whether, if this is the legacy taking shape, it is really one worth hanging on to.
Because there is still another option. Sell the shares.
Sell them back to the supporters, facilitate a wider ownership structure, or simply create the conditions for an orderly transition while you are still around to make that decision.
That way, you do something good. You do something right and there is at least some residue of goodwill left behind.
You will never again be universally regarded as Celtic’s saviour. You will never again be, in the eyes of a huge number of supporters, the guy who brought stability. Those days are gone. Those options have disappeared.
But being hated? What kind of legacy is that?
And that, at least, is one thing you still have the opportunity to change.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
Yes James, and waiting for him to die is not the same as wishing it, which does no one any good.
Wow, this was a hard read James. I don’t think talking about his death like this does any good. Yes alot of us want change but I would never wish another family’s suffering to get it. We are having a bad spell on the pitch. Transfers looked good at the start of the season have now gone into their shells. I believe all can come good before may. DD is a man, father, granddad and so on. His time in charge has given me and my boys alot of great memories. I find this article way below the belt.
Sorry chrislove1985, but James is spot on with everything he says here. But something has to be done or we as Celtic fans are going to witness a rapid decline with Celtic. I hate to say it but the Moustache is about to be responsible for Sevco winning the league, and any top manager will know how both Brendan and now Martin have been treated by this moron, and all we are ever going to get while he is here is just another yes man.
We would like nothin better, than if dermot desmond sold up and took his unambitious board with him. Tho the question of somebody ‘dyin’ is below the belt, tae say the least. That type of scenario, or event, shouldn’t even be spoken about. Come on man !
There are two facts about revolution or regime change and they are, firstly they only happen when those in power are weak and secondly, there is no guarantee the incoming lot will be any better.
On the first point, all this talk of mortality is an attempt to see a possible weakness which seems, shamefully, wishful thinking rather than any reality and a little desperate. Desperate times do indeed call call for desperate measures but this is a tad abstract.
The second point is just as important. There are a string of examples in history which which hoist red flags up the pole in the hope of humanity saluting them.
Lets start with Rangers, who died when the great white hope, one David Murray killed them and confined them to the history books. On a grander scale Stalin, responsible for the deaths of 200 million Russians, freed his country so that eventually Putin could rule them. Similarly, Trump warmongering is the benefactor of George Washington’s dreaming and the brutality of the American Civil war. Cromwell so horrendous they had to bring back the Monarchy!
The French reign of terror, Pol Pot’ killing fields and so on.
What will follow DD? Surely DD junior which will be hardly seismic so I suggest we focus on a change of management, coaches and tactics and fitness regimen.
If used right these players could easily win the SPL . Used right! I will also say this had McArdle and Hatton been in the team their energy would have transformed it and that was not down to the board or DD.
Sledge hammer to crack a nut
Oops, I should have said “War of Independence”.
My Apologies to Josef. 20 million!
Firstly I don’t blame you for spreading lies as it’s all you’ve ever been taught by the rabid anti-socialist press in the West.
The 20 million deaths was a lie created by Robert Conquest, an English government intelligence operative who was part of a British secret Dept to spread lies to the general public about the USSR and Stalin in particular.
The anti-Socialist Yeltzin released the official top secret figures in 1993 to attack the CPSU which had the unintended effect of being a major embarrassment to the likes of Conquest and Rummel.
In these figures 780,000 death warrants were issued from 1921-1953 (which included the Stalin period).
670,000 were in the 1937/38 period of which 300,000 were for political activities (Getty, Rittersporn & Zemskov 1993)
Stalin capped the execution rate at 1 in 3 (Getty, Rittersporn & Zemskov 1993)
Many of these death sentences were refused by higher authorities to the local ones pursuing them and Stalin also overturned many after realizing excesses had been committed in that period and punished local leaders who were responsible (Thurston 1996).
A 60% death rate during the other years of Stalins reign (Vinton 1993) would mean no more than 250,000 unarmed civilians executed during Stalin’s time.
Appalling as this is it is no where near the 600,000 unarmed Filipeano civilians murdered by the USA on the Island of Luzon alone in 1901.
Or the genocide of Native American people by US authorities and settlers which resulted in over 10 million deaths of civilians.
Or the British who oversaw the starvation of 40 million Indians whilst stealing their crops for the open market between 1880-1943.
I could go on and on and on and on and on but suffice to say, Stalin was nothing compared to the capitalist leaders going back centuries.
Interesting you choose a workers state fighting for existence rather than one which treated Black folks as animals for 300 years of slavery.
THATS 300 YEARS BRITAIN HAD SLAVERY.
The USSR fought that everywhere.
I feels like you have been waiting years to get that off your chest but I am afraid you are wrong. You cannot quote from one book and declare it as historical fact to bash the the big bad West.
How about this?
Historian Dmitri Volkogonov, who was special adviser for defence issues to the Russian president Boris Yeltsin until 1994, is also broadly in agreement with Conquest.[31] In 1997, Conquest stated: “We are all inclined to accept the Zemskov totals (even if not as complete) with their 14 million intake to Gulag ‘camps’ alone, to which must be added 4–5 million going to Gulag ‘colonies’, to say nothing of the 3.5 million already in, or sent to, ‘labour settlements’. However taken, these are surely ‘high’ figures.”[32] In the preface to the 40th anniversary edition of The Great Terror (2007), Conquest wrote: “Exact numbers may never be known with complete certainty, but the total of deaths caused by the whole range of Soviet regime’s terrors can hardly be lower than some fifteen million.”
The question you have to ask is “Is it better to eke out a meagre living under a monarchy or to be worked to death under the guise of a Government of the people?”
” but the total of deaths caused by the whole range of Soviet regime’s terrors can hardly be lower than some fifteen million.”- Conquest.
You realise that is your guy but what is 5 million here and there among friends.
You know it was supposed to be a light hearted look at the Celtic board and what comes next but just because you feel strongly about something doesn’t mean others don’t.
I await your defence of Pol Pot, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre,Trump and the rest.
In his 1968 book Robert Conquest stated that Stalin period was responsible for approximately 20 million deaths.
“I am afraid you are wrong. You cannot quote from one book and declare it as historical fact to bash the the big bad West.”
You raised the figure of 20 million, I know where it came from and stated it, you replied Conquest stated 15 million and I was wrong but the evidence is in his book from 1968. The evidence says 20 million not 15.
Lol
I’ve been teaching people the truth about the USSR and capitalism for decades, and not just some one off comment on a football site.
He was an advisor to the rabid drunken anti-Socialist Yeltzin so of course he would say that but the facts say the opposite.
You now shift the goalposts onto the Soviet prison system as your initial claim has been debunked.
No problem .
You quote big dramatic numbers so let’s see what official top secret documents subsequently released after 1991 tell us.
Prison totals in all Soviet detention facilities during Stalin’s time as General Secretary averaged 2 million per annum. Of which between 20-40% were released each year (Getty, Rittersporn and Zemskov 1993).
So this figure was very similar to the prison population in the USA in the 1990s, though the USA at that time wasn’t fighting the largest military invasion in world history or surrounded by enemies activity trying to destroy it, nor was it attempting to rid itself of gangsterism forever like the USSR was.
Excluding the horrific WW2 years the death rate in Soviet detention facilities was 2.5% from official top secret government documents.
Which was even less than the death rate for a law abiding Russian in capitalist Russia of 1915 ( Wheatcroft 1993).
Stalin created socialism for the first time in world history.
He brought free medicine and hospital treatment to a 160 million people who were previously excluded from it. He defeated illiteracy, electrified the entire country and built a natiin not once but twice.
I could go on about his incredible achievements all night. Was he brutal and suspicious ?
Yes.
Did he have to be ?
Yes or the fascists dream that 2/3 of Soviet people be murdered and the rest used as slaves whilst stealing their entire nation would have manifest.
As Hitler stated ” What Indian was for England let Russia be for us”
Stalin had been exiled 5 times himself by the authorities and reared in a religious household, indeed the prison system itself was a legacy of the Tzarists.
Don’t get me started on the history of capitalism my friend as it will break your heart as it is the history of continuous war, theft, genocide and greed.
Not intended to be taken personally but I will leave you with this.
There is saying, ” If you are not a socialist (originally Republican) in your 20’s you have no heart and if you are still one in your 40’s you have no brain.”-unattributed
History is the record of indefensible human fallibility.- me
I’m with Cgreen here. I would like a more diluted shareholding base and no one individual shareholder owning a significant percentage of shares. Was our transfer business as complete as it should have been in the summer – no, it wasn’t.
Having said that we are not getting the level of performance that we should expect from the squad at our disposal. Players are either not listening or not being coached effectively. Tactics have been desperate at times. We don’t look match sharp on the pitch. And player development from the Academy has been more miss than hit.
These are all operational issues where responsibility lies with the football department. Other than recalling players on loan (and I’m not even sure if that is an option), we have to (and should) be doing better with the squad that we have at least through till January. Fingers crossed we have Johnstone, Jota and Yang back after this break and they make a difference.
I read this site every day. I have read great articles but more recently it is click bait at best or simply moronic at worst. Everyone gets criticism except BR, of course. James knows how to demean people with a skill that is resentful, petty and bombastic. Unfortunately, most of what he writes now is filled with venom and bile. If only he had power. God help us. We are supposed to be Celtic SUPPORTERS but I don’t read much that supports Celtic. I suppose it is a little like Sky Sports News, it needs controversy to survive. And where controversy doesn’t exist, well they just manufacture some. Enter James. This latest article however is the worst yet. Enough said. Please don’t encourage this guff, guys.
And it is not only this dreadful red top rip-off. It is the constant contractions. Talk about short-term memory.
Face it, the current board and the Irisg Raj are here to stay. Celtic have the best squad in the league. I would love to see Nygren relegated to a sub. Drop Callum and play Kasper up top with Duran in behind. Forget 4 3 3 forever. I have faith in MON and our players. We are not CL level and when you look at the teams in our European competition, we are not at that level either.
Yes mistakes have been made. This has been the case with every manager I have seen and that includes big Jock.
I am looking forward to the changes MON will make. We can go on a run of winning games and smash the huns. Cmon guys. Hate the board but support Martin and the lads.
Jesus wept!
This is why the board get to do what they want, people like you.
This site along with one other is the most intelligent Celtic site out there.
Away back to CQN kiddo.
Brilliant james ive thought the only way desmond will leave is to die , it’s a shame to think that way but the power mad man won’t budge
Said to my mates weeks ago that we could only hope for Desmond to have a Buddy Holly moment, they thought that was harsh but how many would actually miss him
DD holds Celtic back and he won’t let go.
He controls this part of the lives of millions of people.
Celtic fans are sick of him being in control of the institution they love and want him to relinquish this control.
He refuses and continues to hold Celtic back and we can see no way of ousting him.
So if he never sees sense and either changes his methods or leaves during his life then time will do it for him.
None of us really know what the next stage of Celtic’s future will be.
Hopefully it’s a natural progression towards DD relinquishing/selling his shares to individuals/group/consortium with integrity, humility and professionalism that can step in and take our club forward properly!!!
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I’d rather discuss or visualise that option, rather than discussing the demise or mortality of certain individuals.
The latter doesn’t sit well with me ! HH
The best thing for Celtic would be to have an American billionaire come in and buyout the entire shareholder base and take them private. Many of you Communist loving losers should have no say whatsoever in how a business is run.
Dermott Desmond is possibly the most hated person since Margret Hilda Thatcher.
Remember “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead” was banned by the BBC.
There was great rejoicing world wide when she expired!
The greatest date in the Celtic Fans History Books is 25th May 1967.
Our greatest manager spoke the immortal words:
“FOOTBALL WITHOUT FANS IS NOTHING”
A simple Ultimatum needs to be delivered to Celtic FC PLC
“Your choice Desmond or the Fans”
Not One Penny More Until Desmond & SON are out the Door.
Season ticket holders can leave their seat empty and consider the £600.00+Per Seat they pay as a donation to keep the Club we love going!
The rest of us who are not season ticket holders”THE MAJORITY” can continue the NOPM campaign which is very effective.
The image of a near empty Celtic Park and the share price in free fall
And the ultimatum words
“Your choice Desmond or the fans”
Will solve this problem and the horrible one and his son will be banished from Paradise forever.
Are the horrible one and his Son agents of MOSSAD sent to destroy us?
James you speak for the many not the Few.
You Joe and Eric are helping to keep the conversation alive.Thank You
Keep up the struggle!
Last years AGM should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
This year perhaps?
Interesting read,I think DD is no fool as his business acumen and portfolio and wealth will easily tell you. This is the way he wants to run Celtic, very risk averse,as a business first and he thinks he needs Rangers to keep the money and season tickets flowing.
99% percent of Celtic fans do not agree with this but are powerless to change the narrative. If DD goes his son steps in and it is the same old same old. He will not change nor will his son. Either DD has a damascene moment or things stay the same. I do not think waiting for him to die is in any way helpful to us, so i wish him a long happy retirement after walking the damascus road and selling to a forward thinking person/company who can make us a more professional and aspiring team.
And remember if sevco ever get the chance they will send us to oblivion without a second thought