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The Quotable Bernard Hopkins: Pharrell’s “Happy” is How “They” Control People “Like Cattle”
By Jim Adair
Published:
Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
In this week’s New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella turned in a must-read profile of Bernard Hopkins, where he talks to the legendary boxer and his former opponents about everything B-Hop. But the best part is the lede, which really gives you a sense of Hopkins, the man:
“There’s a god of this world,” Bernard Hopkins was saying. “Some say the mass media is the god of this world. It’s like a song, like that ‘Happy.’ They shoved it down my throat. At first I hated it. Why I got to be happy? My dog died! But it ended up being one of my favorite songs. They put one of those songs out every 20 years. No matter how bad your life is, no matter how legitimate your reasons for being upset, they say, ‘Don’t worry, be happy.’ Song’s only three minutes, then you stop being happy. The way they control human beings, like cattle. How do a sheepdog keep 50 or 100 sheeps in order? I’m watching a dog keep a herd on TV, and I’m thinking that’s the way the system got most human beings: ‘Eat this. Drink that.’”
Rotella also talked to former Hopkins opponents Winky Wright and Oscar De La Hoya to find out what makes Bernard so unstoppable (and unwilling to stop), and the whole profile — which again, is a must-read — can be checked out over here. Come for the conspiracy theories, stay for the boxing tales.
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.