My days of playing football began 60 years ago. No. We did have helmets.
Back then, we played both offense and defense. Not just because I was the 2nd smallest guy on the team, I was terrible at both.
I don’t think I could have gotten better by using steroids. They may not even have existed back then. At least we had never heard of them.
But in football, as in other areas, there are and were other ways one could cheat. A receiver traps the ball. He’ll never win an Oscar™ for that performance. He knows it wasn’t a catch but he wants credit for it. Why?
Games should be played for the fun of it. That idea died even before leather helmets. Okay. We should play to see which team is the best. Remember? It’s supposed to be a team sport.
It isn’t about fun. It isn’t about who’s best. It’s about me winning. It’s about me.
Who’s faster? Who’s stronger? Who’s bigger? Who’s got the best steroids? Who cares?
A few years back I read an article based on a study that showed over half of college students admitted cheating on tests. Getting a good grade, or just a passing one, is more important than bothering to learn the subject matter. That could explain a lot of the blunders we read or hear about on a daily basis.
I know it sounds unAmerican but our esteemed leaders don’t care what the public wants, as long as they get what they want. A president was elected. The people said they wanted him and his policies. But that’s not what some politicians wanted. They did everything they could to thwart the wishes of the electorate. They lied. They obstructed.
While claiming that jobs and the economy topped their list of priorities, they have yet to offer a single bill that would create jobs. Additionally, they have pursued the repeal of health care reform. That would add $400 billion to the deficit. They have offered $32 billion in budget cuts while spending most of the House’s time on what they laughingly call family values issues.
Did the people really demand a redefinition of forceable rape that claimed it wasn’t necessarily rape if it was forceable? Is abortion the number one item on the national agenda that is, according to Mr. Orange, topped by jobs and the economy? And repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell trumps jobs?
Where are the polls that show those issues at the top? Where are the polls that show that the people even want those changes?
Health care reform has again managed to attract a greater number of supporters than opponents. When asked about specific components of that reform, the majorities run as high as 78%. Does the leadership of the house care what the people want? Really?
So, why would they swim upstream on so many issues? Because they think their strategy will continue the stagnation through the next election and benefit them then.
Why do they refuse to abide by their promises to create jobs and improve the economy? Well, it’s a dirty little secret. They don’t have any plans. Why? Because everything in their economic arsenal, tax cuts, have proven to have the opposite effects.
Where are the $500 billion budget cuts? Their political prospects would be worse than Hosni Mubarak’s if they tried to cut Medicare or Social Security. The same would be true if they cut too deeply into the welfare their friends in the military-industrial complex have enjoyed for low, these many years. Well, at least they found $32 billion in cuts and no one gets hurt, except poor women and children and our education system and . .
It isn’t just professional athletes. It includes more than even college athletes. Remember, it’s students at every level cheating on their tests. The list isn’t complete even after we have added in politicians of every stripe. Regardless of the outcome of the various games they play, cheaters are, in reality, losers.
Why do so many of us have such a desperate need to win, regardless of whether we are better or faster or stronger or smarter? Parents, grandparents, other relatives and teachers are some of the culprits. We tell kids they are the future, as though we creating the present have little value. We tell the kids they are important. Potentially, they are, but only potentially.
It is impossible to go to the mall without seeing kids reveling is disrespect, for their elders, their peers; in reality a disrespect for themselves. It’s a rare outing when I am not in danger of sprawling on the floor or caning someone for putting me in harm’s way. It isn’t limited to the young. Need I even mention the terror of rush hour traffic?
There is another major causative factor. Manifest destiny. Despite centuries of killing the natives and enslaving Africans, we’re the good guys. Despite developing and propping up generals, shahs, other tyrants in Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, China, the Congo and many places, far-flung and in our good neighborhood, we are the champions of democracy and self-determination.
We are the richest; well, not any more. We are the most generous; not by a long shot. We are the most productive; not in a long time. We are the smartest; of course our kids lag on every educational measurement. Well, anyway, we deserve our position because, somehow, we are the best. God says so. Therefore, we deserve to win. Don’t look behind the curtain at Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, et al.
Our three decades of support for Mubarak, against the best interest of Egyptians, may bite us where the sun don’t shine. Beyond that, it could lead to destabilizing several other regimes in the area.
Recent events, economic and otherwise, have sharpened our need to reassure ourselves that we still are special. The need to see ourselves as winners is the more acute. The cheating, the winning regardless, these things are not the cause, just the most obvious manifestations of the primal forces that control us. Altogether, they make us all losers.
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Those damned Republicans. They’ve had control of the house for almost a month already. And they still don’t control the Senate. But everything is their fault. Okay.
They were so anxious to get in control so they could create jobs and put the economy right, one would think they could devote a few minutes to introducing a bill in some way related to those problems. Maybe my mommy was wrong when she told me to judge a person by their actions, not their words. If I recall correctly, the Republicans began their criticism of Obama before he was sworn in. Give me credit for being a bit more lenient. Ed, did you miss the point of the post? My references were from the time of Jamestown and… Read more »
You posted a graphic of Republican Jobs Agenda and a graphic of John Boehner crying. You did not post any historical graphics or make aqny reference to history. Pardon me for missing that as your primary point.
As for your weltanschauung, I had to look that one up. I thought you were of Scottish descent rather than German.
I always thought the killing of natives from the early 17th Century till 1890 was a fact of our national history. Slavery is also mentioned in some history books. My point was that we have an unhealthy need to win. We feed that need by both fair means and foul. It distorts our lives, both individually and societally. I provided historical causes, such as Manifest Destiny and parents (I am one), teachers (remember, my wife was a teacher for 40 years) and others. I provided examples from professional sport, from college students and athletes and more generally, including “politicians of… Read more »
I knew your point was that we have an unhealthy need to win. Your reply demonstrates that fact very well.
yeah nice