Competitiveness
in the USA; Our Social Inability to Disconnect Our Personal and Professional Lives from Athletics.
September
2, 2015
By Victor Meier
James Harrison of National Football League, Pittsburg,
Stillers fame says that sometimes your best is not enough and he is correct in
saying so.
One major aspect of sports and competition is
that it gives one the opportunity to take the advice of Ice Cube and “Check Yoself”.
This is can be very good and it is in some way very, close to our DNA. There is
a difference, however, in life I have learned that when everyone wins, everyone
wins.
I beg the question: Why is it that we are cool
with the so-called “Pussification” of our playing fields, courts, tracks, etc.
and so reluctant to want to help people who in life are actually struggling by
little to no fault of their own? People who are merely victims of
circumstances? And fuck you if you think you couldn’t end up there yourself.
There are no winners and losers in life. People
don’t deserve to be discarded our treated like they just need to work harder.
Anyone who says just work harder or get a better job truly has no clue because
they have and I say gratefully, they have never experienced true poverty.
You can say that the past couple of years have
been an experiment in poverty for me personally. I mean, I thought I was broke
before but I am truly mired in debt and doing so going into my forties. Now, if
I said that doesn’t layer a certain amount of shame and disparity upon my
existence I would be lying.
Frankly, the matter at hand haunts me to no
end. No matter how much money I seem to make it never adds up and I am at the
very least thankful for my education and not that I necessarily can “fall back”
on it; no, the true value of my education and upbringing is that I always
believe I can work harder devise a better life strategy. I am constantly
progressing.
That isn’t the case for many (oh and by the
way, my previous statement in no way means that I will see any financial
reprieve in the next decade and let alone saving for retirement…); for many
hard working people there is no reprieve in sight…EVER.
This is sad if you don’t feel badly for people
who will still make you your shitty McLunch and still make sure that their
restaurant…where you eat at is clean and sanitary; even giving enough of a shit
to wash their hands before serving you…then you’re either a heartless fuck who
should have to live like they do or you’re just too incapable or unwilling to
posses the empathy necessary to understand another’s struggles.
I mean, shit; if working hard alone made you
“successful” then Mexico would be the richest country on Earth not the United
States of America and yeah, I said U.S.A. not America because the America’s are
continents with many other countries than the U.S. That is another topic for
another time.
Here in the U.S.A. we have some of the best
athletes on the planet and therefore some of the most dominant teams in modern
history (for whatever the fuck that’s worth; whew…my fantasy team’s in first
place woo!...fucking children…wake up, unplug and coach or support a REAL team
and not one full of twenty-something millionaires…like you know a youth team or
something in your community, it really does take a fucking village and when you
play in your fantasy world instead it robs our society of its potential) and we
believe that we have to transfer this idea of success to the business world and
even our very “autonomous” society.
That is complete bullshit. Check out how MJ’s
coaching and ownership has worked out for him. Besides, many of the assholes
telling us to fight over crumbs while they make off with the cake…many of them
are just bush-leaguers who were born on third and act like they hit a triple.
We are meant to live in harmony with all living
things. In the past I have written about poverty and the value of social
programs and other hippy shit. I’m taking a slightly different approach and
almost invoking the very defense that I do not myself value much in the form of
an anecdotal argument.
I agree with James Harrison when it comes to
sports. Fran Tarkenton made a post football career on the topic of losing and
it’s merits. I once heard Tarkenton say that he would repeat all four loses in
the big game because to him that was living; he felt sorrow and it only
propelled him to go further and to push beyond the loss (words to that effect
or at least that’s what I took away from it. Shit, it was on some late night
infomercial, give me a break).
In any event, in sports we also learn to pick
each other up, even our opponent. In sports we are taught to be courageous
winners and to encourage our competition politely in loss…Good Game. When we
play on a T.E.A.M. we are taught that Together Everyone Achieves More and on
that T.E.A.M. there is a chain that must not be broken and that as a chain we
are only as strong as our weakest link. Citizens of the United States of
America let’s pick each other up for we are only as strong as the weakest
amongst us.
Sports have gripped so much of our culture
today that as a supposedly “united people” we are collectively unable to
separate the idea of winners and losers in life versus the playing field,
court, track, fucking cross-jump tractor pull shit, etc. Pick a person up while
they are down…you’ll feel good about it.[1]
It’s all a shitty little game just like our Monopoly Money.
"I
came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing,
participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do
and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back
until they EARN a real trophy. I'm sorry I'm not sorry for believing that
everything in life should be earned and I'm not about to raise two boys to be
men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because
they tried their best...cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that
should drive you to want to do better...not cry and whine until somebody gives
you something to shut u up and keep you happy. #harrisonfamilyvalues"[2]
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