In the past I was on the those people who wondered exactly what professional athletes do that is worth the millions of dollars some of them make for a salary. I would have argued that they do no critical research nor do they contribute to the public good through service nor do they produce items needed for survival by the masses. I have however come to change my mind.....for the simple reason that they have rules on the playing field.
I started thinking about this during the current primary season....the one that has no end....and some patterns of behavior really started to be glaring to me. To explain, lets take Florida and Michigan....two states that wanted to change the date of their respective primaries. They were told 'no', they proceeded to anyway even with full knowledge that the votes would not count. They obviously envisioned a progression of events which would give them clout whether they had votes or not...the early momentum....and if circumstances were different I'm sure we wouldn't be hearing from them at all. However, that is not what has happened so of course this is not 'their' fault - it is the rules that are not fair....those rules everyone previously agreed to.
Rules, at least in theory, have not been determined to be fair of unfair solely on their ability to reach an inteneded outcome. Rules are put in place to give credibility to whatever the outcome may be. This change in the intended purpose of rules is epidemic in politics from the President down through the ranks. Unfortunately this has not ony affected the political sphere of our culture. You see, rules tend to make people accountable for their actions and we have moved away from accountability. It's not taught, it's not practiced and it's not evident within our behavior. There is always someone to blame. 'No one told me the coffee was hot so I put it between my legs'......
Now one of the main problems with the death of accountability and the inevitable extinction of rules is people forget to reason and think...(why should they ?) You don't have to think about anything - because your not responsible anyway and if you want to convince someone that you are right - you don't have to have proof or facts - you just have to say it convincingly in a sound bite somewhere....no one will stop to think about whether your right or not as long as it sounds good. Look at the mortgage crisis now....if I am a reasonably intelligent responsible adult and I am buying a house that has appreciated at the ridiculous rate of up to 25% per year...and I'm buying it with a mortgage that does not pay down the principal....it is pretty obvious that I am gambling on several levels. By definition gambling is not a sure thing. Ignorance of what you are signing is no excuse - that 's why they put truth in lending laws in place years ago. It is not someone else's fault. Understandibly it is not a good thing to happen, but when those documents were signed that says that the signer knew the rules.
So we are now functioning in a society that from our leaders down to new college graduates - no one is accountable and rules don't matter if you don't like their outcome.
Which brings us to sports....the rules on the field matter and they don't change and everyone knows them and they abide by them whether they win or lose.....If that isn't priceless today - I don't know what is.
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