It used to be easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys... at least in old western movies. The good guys wore white hats. The "black hat" bad guys sometimes cheated, stole, lied, and killed, but by today's standards, they weren't so terrible. More importantly, the good guys didn't sacrifice their principles just to defeat the bad guys. They played by rules, often to their disadvantage in conflict, and didn't lower their rules to the level of the bad guys.

I'm not sure when we started to glamorize being "baaaaad", or to allow our good guys to operate by bad-guy rules, but it's been increasing for a long time. Somewhere along the way, we decided that it was OK for good guys to abandon their rules to defeat the really bad guys. We seem to have become so intent on winning that we're willing to overlook the means. I'm sure you can think of many examples, but some of the relatively minor ones are stuck in my head... like the U. of Iowa changing their football uniforms to black (like the Pittsburgh Steelers) and revising their Herky the Hawk mascot to look vicious, in a sort of feeble attempt to strike fear into the hearts of opponents. The Timberwolves did the same later by changing their handsome wolf into a snarling one, with the name having a matching fang-like look.

I've been a sports fan longer than most people have lived... just a function of being an old man. When I was a kid, we all looked up to sports figures as heros, and most of them took their position as role models seriously. Some still seem to, but not nearly as many. Although I enjoy all sports, baseball is my preference, simply because it has remained quite civilized. Basketball is the sport that has changed the most, and in some ugly ways. Trash talk, snarly looks, and hard, deliberate fouls have made the game less enjoyable for me. In a game that requires a lot of finesse and skill, they just don't fit. Even though there are more talented players than ever before, the game just isn't as good as it once was. Basketball has turned into an officiating sport, with a lot of rough body contact allowed while some "touch" fouls are needlessly called. Star players seem to get special rules, as if maintaining the stars' stats and images is more important than the game itself. The standard of what is acceptable has become very fuzzy, so players push the rules to the limit, which leads to a lot of fouls called, and games that are decided by officiating rather than the play of the teams.

That's a lot of ragging about sports, which I still consider as only entertainment and not very important, but it obviously affects a lot of people dramatically, and I dislike the direction in which it has led them... again... away from clear rules of behavior.

If humans are to coexist peacefully, we must have some sense of right and wrong. There must be limits beyond which we will not go just in order to succeed. The ends do not justify all means. I really do not want to succeed if doing so violates my own principles. I think that was once a common attitude that has become rationalized away. Far too often, "winners" are glorified even if they have cheated. I enjoy winning too, but if I've had to sacrifice my own idea of justice in order to win, I've lost something of greater value than the win would have given me.

Many years ago, I changed my attitude about competition, when I realized the difference between healthy and unhealthy competition. Competition is essentially life-affirming. It drives us to strive, to become more skillful, and to become the best we can be... as long as we keep perspective, and keep our priorities organized. It's easy for young people to view winning as the goal, rather than a means to real goals. There are few things sadder than watching someone strive to win only to realize that they don't know what they've won.

Winning is a victory for someone. It does not need to mean the defeat of someone else. The Minnesota Vikings (dare I mention it again?) are known for having lost 4 Super Bowls. That we think of those games as 4 horrid defeats rather than as being the 2nd best of all NFL teams, on 4 occasions, is an indication of an unhealthy attitude about winning. Recall the judgement that Minnesota just doesn't have that "killer instinct"? This is entertainment? Let's get serious.

Winning at all cost is a sick attitude... it's a self-destructive attitude that I think has grown. I would enjoy believing that it's only a few knucklhead sports fans who, because they're losers personally, try to substitute sports victories, but it's bigger than that. It's embedded in our winner-take-all political system. It's embedded in our winner-take-all civil justice system. We've accepted college graduates as winners, relegating non-graduates to loser status, even though we know that doesn't reflect reality. We've pressed patriotism into nationalism, and declared ourselves the winners and the rest of the world as losers.

In our drive to compete, it's extremely important that we understand the possibility of the win-win scenario. Politically, the zero-sum game is destructive. It declares that every gain must be at someone's expense. That has led to the use of force in taking from those who have in order to help those that need. That is worse than a zero-sum result... no net gain... a loss and a gain. That is socialism, and that is not the best possible outcome by any means. Socialism weakens the strong to assist the weak. It sounds equitable, but the net result must always be a loss. Those who are most capable are handicapped, while the least able benefit. The strong are chained in order to free the weak. That will always be a net loss because, while crippling the most capable, it will not make the weak more capable.

Vince Lombardi, former great Green Bay coach, was quoted as saying "Winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY thing". For a coach, paid only to win, maybe that's a good guideline. For the rest of us, a far better guideline is "It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game". If, like me, you're sick of the direction in which our nation is headed, I suggest that you join me in reminding each other about how we once played the game. Any buyers for my white hats?