Leo Durocher Sent Me
All I've ever really wanted to say all along about Gil, in column form: sports aren't morality. If you look to them for that, you're shallow and confused.
Now, go listen to the podcast.
Labels: gilbert arenas, media, morality, psychology, washington wizards
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 1/06/2010 03:22:00 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I''m not quite sure how carrying a gun, as Barkley did, is a factor in whether or not he is a role model and I don't get how treating a deadly tool with respect is best associated with NRA propaganda. Hell, I probably disagree that a politician's job is to ensure a more just and moral order, especially considering our mutli-ethical society. Maybe that belief is what leads to the political partisanship for which this site shows frequent signs of.
This Gil shit just makes me think of media's consistent relationship with failure. It's an hourly head wound where a prick's facts lead to gushing opinions.
An opinion is basically the emotional state of when we feel that we have enough information and to be fair, we can always have more information. It's rather embarrassing to think how emotional we tend to get and one would think the best media would be a stoic one (the same applies to politicians). Instead we get the opposite. Basically I find it more interesting to see how the taste mongers and moralists in web and print have capitalized on the small transgressions of the overhyped.
I don't see how your column helps anyone make any sense of the Arenas gun issue. Sure, Arenas' lack of 'morality' here doesn't turn me off to the NBA. Like you, I don't turn to sports for morality. So what? This is still a case of a man illegally and irresponsibly carrying around multiple guns and stashing them in the team's locker room. If I were his employer, I would fire him.
Again, I don't think Arenas should spend any time behind bars for this. I am looking at this from the point of view of the person from whom Arenas draws his checks. I would never willingly give him another dollar.
And yes, if Arenas were actually a good player who makes his team better, than I probably wouldn't sever ties. But he sucks the life out of a team's offense.
thank you for providing a different angle. and you know, I'm not wholly convinced that his joke wasn't funny. I think if I was there I probably would've laughed. of course gun play shouldn't be funny, but neither shld laughing at the mentally challenged ("something abt mary") or black guys wearing white face ("white chicks") or dwarfism (anything starring vern troyer). but we do. and why? because it's in context.
if anything, I'm more satisfied with the person that Gil has shown himself to be in the aftermath of this. he didn't think his joke was a big deal (or a bad thing) and conducted himself as such, despite what most of society demanded of him. I hope he keeps talking. I doubt he will he'll go back to the silence he dragged us through at the beginning of the year. and may never speak to the media in any meaningful way again. I'm hoping that's not the case.
This won't come as a surprise, and I basically agree that looking to anybody to be a role model is stupid (be yr own role model, kids!!) but there's a REASON it happens with sport.
(This is so transparent that probably everybody's taking it for granted, but I'm stuck at work, it's dead slow & I've got a fever, so deal with it.)
I watch the sports I watch for 2 main reasons. First, it's a way to see humans do simply amazing things. Just gawping in awe is enriching to the soul, sometimes, as when virtuosity (does not equal virtue) of any type can truly be wallowed in. [Sure, there is such a thing as taste, but we can elide this for another time.]
Second, sports are a great metaphor for life. There's this level playing field, the rules are explicit and well-known and apply to everyone equally...okay, so sports are a shitty metaphor for life; nevertheless do we represent to ourselves our little conflicts and loyalties and efforts/strivings triumphs/tragedies thru these highly formalized play structures.
Again, this is obvious, but it's also precisely why we turn to the individuals for moral example: we quite literally can't extricate the moral content from the play; how are we easily to avoid assigning moral significance to the players?
I agree that sports are a great metaphor for life, but in life there are varying degrees of moral/ethical slippages allowed. I've seen someone show off an unloaded pistol once upon a time. It didn't strike me that I was suddenly in the presence of the worst person ever.
Again, I think politics are the place people should be held the highest standard. That and lawyers. No, really.
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