Reply #46: I'm not interested in sports and I sure don't think this shit has any place in Congress [View All]

[skygazer]

I do find it sort of a mirror of society as a whole, though - the idea that it's okay to cheat, or do things that you know are illegal/wrong/unethical etc. just because you think the end justifies the means. Hell, that's one of the things I hated about the last 8 years - it was the mantra of the Bush administration that the end justified the means.

Our society has such a skewed vision of sports particularly. On the one hand, we hold it up to be this model of cooperation and "sportsmanship" and a builder of character and the value of hard work and commitment, etc. ad nauseum.

On the other hand, we embrace ruthless competition (both in sports and in business - even education). We're sending such a mixed message about life in general - you need to cooperate and you need to DESTROY THE OTHER GUY!!! You need to practice sportsmanship and you need to DESTROY THE OTHER GUY!!! And we've elevated professional athletes to superstars and injected an absurd amount of money into the equation.

So what seems to be the obvious answer is to do whatever it takes to win, win, win. Even if that negates the whole idea of the game.