...and justice for...
http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/injustice-all
Bill Strickland's latest piece has set my mind running on this long debated subject. Here are some of my thoughts laid out a little more coherently about the whole Lance doping affair for the first time.
Do we reward those who deceive one important aspect of the evolutionary arms race; appearing to be a cooperative but valuable asset to our social net? Manipulating the hero ethos to seemingly promote clean, healthy, active living while fighting an epidemic human disease? Do we reward those who underneath it all are lying to get ahead? Strongly defecting against the supposed level playing field encoded into our most ennobling laws. Denying the rightful place of those who don't have the connections and means (let alone the corrupt and cynical heart) to afford a drug regimen while paying millions of dollars to those who can administer and monitor such a program so that one does not get caught? Paying off those in the highest levels of the administration of the sport when accidents happen? And becoming the prime force behind doping in sport; setting the ultimate example for those who happily hide behind the omerta?
Lance has fought against his ultimate exposure as THE cheater in a sport of cheaters to the point that even if he's unambiguously exposed, there will be no justice. And who does this ultimately serve? Him. At the cost of the hope that all of us have to be treated fairly by our fellow humans. Another, not insignificant, nick in the facade of human justice.
Sport, in and of itself, is not important. First world problems. But, at their heart, we're playing the game of cooperative competition and setting examples for what's acceptable behavior, not only in sport, but in other aspects of human life. Sport is used to motivate ourselves to our highest values, best selves, and helps promote a sense of fair play. Especially for the troubled youth that are often encouraged to go into sport to better engage them in society instead of defecting against it with a life of crime. A salve to combat the destructive jading of young hearts.
From the way you treat your fellow human beings on the street, to how you do business with others, fair sport helps to inform and set an example for justice in other realms of human existence. In a realm that otherwise doesn't matter, we learn how to win and lose with grace. And set a public example for all.
When cheaters benefit at the cost of justice like I believe those like Lance Armstrong have done, this serves to shift human nature on a global scale from one of universal cooperation to a more social darwinistic bent. Defection results. Suspicion results. Lines drawn. People entrenched. Wars begun. The 1% selling off the entire infrastructure that human cooperation depends upon, taking the money, and flying off to the UAE.
You can't blame Lance for all of that. But if he is legitimately guilty, he has played his part during an era of mass corruption in other realms of human society. Sport mirroring finance mirroring business mirroring politics mirroring international trade. And if we don't learn how to justly work together soon, the whole human house of cards shit pile will collapse upon us.
Bill Strickland's latest piece has set my mind running on this long debated subject. Here are some of my thoughts laid out a little more coherently about the whole Lance doping affair for the first time.
Do we reward those who deceive one important aspect of the evolutionary arms race; appearing to be a cooperative but valuable asset to our social net? Manipulating the hero ethos to seemingly promote clean, healthy, active living while fighting an epidemic human disease? Do we reward those who underneath it all are lying to get ahead? Strongly defecting against the supposed level playing field encoded into our most ennobling laws. Denying the rightful place of those who don't have the connections and means (let alone the corrupt and cynical heart) to afford a drug regimen while paying millions of dollars to those who can administer and monitor such a program so that one does not get caught? Paying off those in the highest levels of the administration of the sport when accidents happen? And becoming the prime force behind doping in sport; setting the ultimate example for those who happily hide behind the omerta?
Lance has fought against his ultimate exposure as THE cheater in a sport of cheaters to the point that even if he's unambiguously exposed, there will be no justice. And who does this ultimately serve? Him. At the cost of the hope that all of us have to be treated fairly by our fellow humans. Another, not insignificant, nick in the facade of human justice.
Sport, in and of itself, is not important. First world problems. But, at their heart, we're playing the game of cooperative competition and setting examples for what's acceptable behavior, not only in sport, but in other aspects of human life. Sport is used to motivate ourselves to our highest values, best selves, and helps promote a sense of fair play. Especially for the troubled youth that are often encouraged to go into sport to better engage them in society instead of defecting against it with a life of crime. A salve to combat the destructive jading of young hearts.
From the way you treat your fellow human beings on the street, to how you do business with others, fair sport helps to inform and set an example for justice in other realms of human existence. In a realm that otherwise doesn't matter, we learn how to win and lose with grace. And set a public example for all.
When cheaters benefit at the cost of justice like I believe those like Lance Armstrong have done, this serves to shift human nature on a global scale from one of universal cooperation to a more social darwinistic bent. Defection results. Suspicion results. Lines drawn. People entrenched. Wars begun. The 1% selling off the entire infrastructure that human cooperation depends upon, taking the money, and flying off to the UAE.
You can't blame Lance for all of that. But if he is legitimately guilty, he has played his part during an era of mass corruption in other realms of human society. Sport mirroring finance mirroring business mirroring politics mirroring international trade. And if we don't learn how to justly work together soon, the whole human house of cards shit pile will collapse upon us.