Common Sense: Only for Sports

Sunday, April 09, 2006

I am all for spectator sports as a celebration of excellence, but often find myself annoyed with sports coverage in the media. On the one hand, the facts of a sporting event are usually far more straightforward than those of, say, the war or the economy, and so biased reporting is usually not a problem that keeps important facts away from the audience. On the other hand, since sports concretize various human virtues, like discipline, hard work, or tenacity, they lend themselves easily to bad commentary about the virtues these athletes supposedly embody.

Given the predominance of irrationality and altruism in our society's intellectual mainstream, this means that bad philosophical ideas will often get undeserved "credit" for the spectacular achievements of sports figures. Almost every week, one will hear about one athlete or another whose achievements are made possible by -- oh, I don't know hard work maybe -- who instead credits something like his religious faith or his superstitious practice of eating only chicken every other Wednesday. Sports reporters routinely make a big deal of such assertions. Sometimes, they'll even misappropriate displays of excellence on their own as examples of their own altruistic morality put into practice. My "favorite" is the common mistake of calling a particularly good example of team play "unselfish" -- as if defeating one's opponent is anything but a selfish act.

Having said all that, the sports section is the least intellectual part of the paper. This makes its ideological content, for all its faults, both the least corrupted by the pernicious influence of modern philosophy and the closest to what the American man on the street is likely to think. One consequence of this is that you will, from time to time, find a gem of common sense buried in Sports. The following short editorial appeared in the print edition of today's Houston Chronicle.

Rasheed Wallace picked up his 16th technical foul last week, earning an automatic one-game suspension and forcing the Pistons' first lineup change this season.

The Pistons, naturally, said that poor Rasheed had been treated unfairly by officials biased against him by his past bad behavior. They said Wallace still toes the line but does not deserve many of those technicals.

Here's an idea: Given his horrible behavior over the years, don't toe the line. Don't go near the officials. Don't talk to them. Don't get close to a technical foul or 16.

Most of all, don't ask our pity if after all those years of treating officials atrociously they believe you still do. [bold added]
Too bad our newsrooms confine such reasoning to the sports section! I recall no such commentary being made by a newspaper about Iraq's repeated violations of the various UN resolutions leading up to the American invasion three years ago, and I see none such now regarding the Hamastanis.

The Hamastanis are a "nation" whose sole cultural "contribution" to the world seems to be murder by blowing oneself to bits, an act that has been carried out repeatedly by Hamastanis in Israel. Their leadership has in the past consistently broken promises that were supposed to lead to peace with Israel. (I leave aside whether any ever negotiated any of these in good faith.) Most importantly, the people themselves demonstrated their overwhelming approval of such behavior by electing a terrorist organization, Hamas, to lead their government.

And so, we see reports like the following. [This is similar to a recent story in the Chronicle. --ed]
"The US remains committed to President Bush's vision of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is also our desire to help provide for the basic human needs of the Palestinian people. Consistent with these principles, the US will increase its humanitarian aid to help Palestinians in need," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

"Basic humanitarian assistance, including health, food, and education, will increase by 57 per cent, for a total of USD 245 million. The United States will also provide USD 42 million to strengthen civil society and independent institutions," she said. [links dropped, bold added]
And yet there is no tough talk. There is not one peep of criticism of the Bush Administration for failing to cut off all aid to these brutes, so they can see for themselves what their devotion to violence would mean if implemented consistently.

Does Rasheed Wallace deserve the consequences for acting like a child more than the Hamastanis deserve to be ostracized for supporting murder? Or does the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle feel that the notion of justice is the stuff of childish games, to be confined to the sports section or the funnies?

-- CAV

No comments: