Withdrawal

In individual sports such things do happen and will happen, and they were not considered as particularly important.

Until few days ago the same news would be announced in the case of Novak Djokovic. But this time it was “rephrased”. The question is – Why? And who came to this idea in the first place? That is, did media invent a new phrase on their own, or was it someone else’s suggestion that it is no longer convenient to talk and write about “National Nole’ retreat?

Are these the same people who, few years ago, have dismissed the state television journalists because he was reporting Djokovic matches without enough idolatry, and the same people who have overthrown the president of the Tennis Association of Serbia, a sports legend Slobodan Zivojinovic (who is, by the way, a very decent man)? Or did the ‘suggestion’ come from a higher place?

There is a joke that says “chief is not sleeping, he is just resting” and that “chief doesn’t read newspapers at work, he is just looking for information”, and these euphemistical reports of an athlete’s results resemble these funny stories. But it seems there is much more in all this than just a good joke.

It all somehow fits into the broader social environment and practice which are becoming more and more obvious – the refusal to call things the right names and turning a blind eye to the truth.