The Seattle Seahawks trampled the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60, but the post-game chatter barely touched football.

Fans and pundits argued about anthems, halftime, commercials, and what the whole spectacle said about America.

For better or worse, the Super Bowl serves as the premier civic liturgy of the American Empire, a night when strangers share the same screen and

offices share the same small talk. When that ritual becomes another front and the culture war,

the country loses one more place to breathe. Look, families fight, politics, they intrude,

and resentments pile up, but holidays still force a pause thanksgiving

and christmas push people back to the same table reminding them that argument can't become the

relationship when even the ritual itself turns into the argument when thanksgiving and

christmas are no longer about gratitude or celebrating

the birth of Christ, but rather who can win a political debate, the family slides from conflict

towards a rupture. A nation works the same way. Shared ceremonies don't solve deep disagreements,

but they do keep disagreements from becoming total separation.

Americans rarely stop living their separate lives to watch the same thing at the same time.

Streaming splinters the audience. Social media isolates communities. Even big films and best-selling

books now fall into ideological silos. The Super Bowl remains one

of the few national events that still compels common attention. People who even hate sports

tune in for the ads so they can follow the conversation at work the next day. A shared

celebration, however frivolous, still binds people who otherwise share little

else in common.

This year's Super Bowl looks like a country at war with itself.

The broadcast opened with two national anthems, the familiar Francis Scott Key Standard,

and the newer Black national anthem that appears at more NFL events each season.

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