Hypocrisy On Steroids

[kis55]

It's probably a bit of "preaching to the choir" by posting this here, but the article I think is worth discussing.

Hypocrisy On Steroids
By Jonathan David Morris | View comments
How is using steroids any different than drinking coffee or alcohol, or taking Cialis, or doing any of the other things people do to enhance their natural endowments?


I can’t take it anymore.

Enough with the whining. Stop it with the hypocrisy.

A couple of weeks ago, Floyd Landis was an ex-Mennonite turned Tour de France hero. People were calling him the new face of sports bravery for winning the world’s toughest bike race in spite of needing a hip replacement.

Today, he’s a cheater — a bona fide louse, a man who betrayed his sport and country — because he tested positive for unusually (read: suspiciously) high levels of testosterone . Now, instead of singing his praises, all I’m hearing from people is, “Say it ain’t so, Floyd.” All anyone wants to do is complain and moan about “another” fallen hero taking a bite of that forbidden, albeit performance-enhancing, fruit called steroids.

Just stop already.

Honestly. Please. For the love of God.

Just stop.

Yes, the man was caught doping. No, that doesn’t mean he betrayed his sport or his country . . . or the three or four people who actually follow his sport in his country.

Landis has denied any and all steroid allegations, but the truth is, whether he used or not, it doesn’t matter. Maybe officially, legally, in the context of rulebooks, it matters. But not in reality. In reality, steroids only matter because we’ve decided they matter. And we’ve only decided they matter because of some vain belief they “taint” this or “cheat us out of” that.

In truth, steroids cheat us out of nothing.

I know we all want to believe sports are “real,” and that steroids make the real “unreal” in some way or another. But that unreality is relative. A guy winning a race on steroids looks the same on TV as a guy winning a race without them. This is all that matters now that everyone in every sport seems to be juicing.

If fairness were the issue here, every athlete could use steroids and no one would be arguing. Instead, every athlete seems to be using them, and we’re still trying to ban them anyway. This can only be because we believe steroids are somehow immoral. It can only be because we believe Landis’s victory somehow besmirches past Tour champions — or because we believe Barry Bonds somehow destroys the credibility of baseball’s homerun records.

To believe these things is to believe there’s something immoral about human progress.

Floyd Landis needs a new hip, and here he’s winning races. Barry Bonds is in his early 40s and until recently was hitting homeruns like a guy in his late 20s. If drugs are making these things possible, it would be more unnatural not to take those drugs. How many middle-aged men are taking Viagra or Cialis, for instance? And what are those, if not performance enhancers?

How many people take allergy pills just to make it through work during allergy season? How many drink coffee just to make it through work every day of every season, all throughout the year?

When faced with certain obstacles, human beings innovate. When they want it bad enough, they’ll find a way to match their will to win.

If we’re going to accuse steroid-using athletes of cheating — if we’re going to say their achievements shouldn’t count — then how can we include Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe in the pantheon of great American writers? Both men drank heavily. Alcohol was their performance enhancer. How was this fair to sober writers? Writers who didn’t drink couldn’t possibly compete.

Much the same, is it fair for a short man wearing lifts in his shoes to compete for dates with short men who don’t wear them? Wearing lifts may be a little different than injecting something into your body. But at its heart, how’s it different than taking human growth hormone ? How’s it different than drinking coffee or alcohol, or taking Cialis, or doing any of the other things people do to enhance their natural endowments?

I’m not saying pro athletes necessarily should be on steroids. Nor am I saying pro sports leagues have no right to ban them. I understand performance-enhancing drugs can have negative long-term side effects. Ultimately, that may be a great reason not to use them. But the medications we take in our kitchens every morning can have negative long-term side effects, too. Sometimes we don’t even know how those medications will affect us in the long-term. But we take them anyway, because we believe the benefits outweigh the possible risks.

Some athletes juice with the very same mindset. And not just to gain a competitive edge, either. Sometimes a pitcher using HGH does so to overcome the physical pains of what he’s being paid for. Yet we hold him to a much different standard. We don’t yell about the “credibility” of our personal health histories when we pop our pills each morning; we only yell about credibility when athletes are popping theirs.

It’s not unusual for a society to project deep-rooted feelings onto its sports heroes. Deep down, maybe we fear our society’s overly medicated — and maybe that’s why we’ve dismissed performance enhancers categorically. In the end, though, I think the argument that steroids “send kids a bad message” tells us everything we need to know here. We think it’s immoral for science to help kids run faster, jump higher, or overcome the effects of time on their bodies. Yet drugs that sedate kids and make ‘em sit still in a classroom? Those, we have no qualms with.

There’s a common thread throughout this discussion. The idea that we should make do with our lot in life is it. But that mentality is self-defeating. And considering the lengths we’ll go just to look and feel better in this society, it also makes us a fat bunch of hypocrites.


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Jonathan David Morris is a political satirist based in New Jersey. His website is Read JDM.



http://www.intellectualconservative....y-on-steroids/

[Herris]

I have thought these very same things, myself.

[Phreak101]

All the above should follow the fine example of the sport of bodybuilding. EVERYONE takes them, so no one has an edge over anyone else!

[Act of God]

If the rules of the game say "no steroids ", then you can't play the game using steroids. It's not a difficult concept. You don't allow corked bats, oversized goalie pads, or any other rules to be broken. This is no different.

Using steroids personally is fine. When the use of steroids is, literally, cheating then there is a problem because it compromises the sport and the rules it is based upon.

[singern]

Sorry Kis55, gotta disagree on this one.
although my view of steroids is more liberal, and indeed I think there great when used properly and responsibly.
If the rules of the particular sport say no, then its no. Anything else is just cheating, and gives an unfair advantage.

[RA]

Sorry Kis55, gotta disagree on this one.
although my view of steroids is more liberal, and indeed I think there great when used properly and responsibly.
If the rules of the particular sport say no, then its no. Anything else is just cheating, and gives an unfair advantage.

The problem is that your competing for a job where the other 200 people are also using..

[kis55]

The problem is that your competing for a job where the other 200 people are also using..

Agreed.

Singern, I understand where you're coming from, but, let me be clear. I in no way believe that cheating by using a banned substance is acceptable. I compete in powerlifting, in a non-tested organization. There are drug tested organizations for those that don't use. Occasionally, people get caught in these organizations for using and they get banned or suspended, they deserve it!

But, what irks me about Landis, Bonds, etc. is not the fact that they get busted for cheating, it's about the way the public reacts when they find out pro athletes are using. They completely dismiss, and then ridicule the athletes' accomplishments. As though Bonds ONLY hit those homeruns b/c of drugs. I'm willing to bet ya I could take the same exact drugs at double the dose that Bonds was on, and I wouldn't hit 1/10 the number of homeruns.

I was completely drugfree for the first 32years of my life, and have only been using for the last 2 years. I know very well, now, what the drugs do, and what they don't do. They do not make average players into superstars. They make superstars even better superstars, or average athletes slightly better than average athletes.

It just pisses me off that the public at large immediately discounts and dismisses the accomplishments. That's really what I got from the author of the article, that the public needs to wake up and lighten up. Realize that it is human nature to seek an edge, from coffee to viagra etc.

[singern]

The problem is that your competing for a job where the other 200 people are also using..

Then it is clear, one of two things must happen. Either the commission of whichever sport needs to be that much more active in its testing, and brutally strict in enforcement, or they need to open it up and let everyone use any type of product.

[RA]

Then it is clear, one of two things must happen. Either the commission of whichever sport needs to be that much more active in its testing, and brutally strict in enforcement, or they need to open it up and let everyone use any type of product.

Now that I 10000% agree with.

[Act of God]

Then it is clear, one of two things must happen. Either the commission of whichever sport needs to be that much more active in its testing, and brutally strict in enforcement, or they need to open it up and let everyone use any type of product.

+5000000

Exactly, one way or the other. Personally, I think they should be able to do whatever they want. Its their body, let them take whatever risks they want. It can only help the entertainment aspect of the sport anyway. Plus, cheaters won't be rewarded for not being caught.

[Pazienza]

The problem is that your competing for a job where the other 200 people are also using..

Does not make Landis' actions right....