It sure seems like today's culture applauds winning, regardless of what the means to achieve that victory are. I've been reminded of that lately by the doping scandals that are so prevalent in many major sports (baseball, track & field, cylcling). But, I think this attitude extends off of the field as well. Just look at the corporate scandals of the last several years. That was basically executives who were so focused on driving up their stock prices that they were willing to deceive shareholders (the people they're supposed to be working for) and cheat employees (those who are actually creating the value). Those execs are certainly nothing like the servant leaders talked about by so many leading management writers and professors (of course using the concept introduced by Christ 2000 years ago).
I see this same attitude on the college campus today (and saw it when I was in school too). Students want to win (get a good job), so they are willing to do whatever it takes to get there- sometimes by good means like studying and doing homework, other times by bad means like cheating. Sadly, I've seen too many colleagues look the other way or let a student off with a slap on the wrist for cheating. Cheating disgusts me and I see it as a threat to the educational process. But, I suppose that to someone who wants to get ahead, it represents that little bit of an extra edge.
My fear is that as long as this culture focuses on the end, regardless of the means and slips further into moral relativism that things will just get worse. After all, if there is no absolute right & wrong, then maybe cheating or doping is OK for some because they don't think it's wrong. I miss the days when sports heroes and the like played fairly, led respectable lives and at least appeared to operate with integrity and we collectively cared about the means to an end. Now, I'm sure I'm not the only one left who feels this way, but it does seem like a lot of people aren't necessarily acting that out anymore. After all, fame, fortune and success can be awfully tempting... what would you be willing to do to get there? Tell a little white lie? Stab someone in the back? Cheat? Deceive a boss/shareholders?
I don't think most people who get involved in this stuff set out that way. Instead, I think they gradually become desensitized to it and before they know it, they're in deep. What maybe started out as "embellishing" a resume turns into cooking the books years later, or taking home paper & pens from work turns into embezzling.
So, I applaud the guy who passes on a promotion because he knows it would require compromising his integrity or the coach who benches his quarterback over a team rules violation. Those are the people we should look up to, not those who do whatever is necessary to get ahead.
-JRO
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3 comments:
That has become quite the problem as people try to exceed the limits of human capability (in sports) and as we continue living in a society whose theme is 'More, More, More, Me, Me, Me.' The fear I think a lot of fair, well-meaning people have now is, "Even if I don't play that way, some of my competitors will. What do I do to stay in the game?" That would be an easy answer if honesty and integrity were always rewarded in this world, but that just isn't the case.
This was one of the topics we covered today in a seminar - we read several "award winning" stories from newspapers around the country that reporters eventually admitted to fabricating or plagiarizing. That just boggles my mind, but I think you're right in saying that it's not a fall but a slide - people start off with "small" indescretions that they rationalize, and then it snowballs.
I was just talking to a guy who works as a government contractor about this today. I recently took a position here in the D.C. area and it seems to me no one here is honest. Even Christians I have dealt with in the last few weeks have crossed into an area of gray that I feel we need to stay away from. The company I have gone to work for has honesty and integrity as top values. We agree that we would rather lose a large contract than to even begin to do anything unethical, immoral, dishonest or just plain wrong. We might not win in the short term but God will bless us in the long run.
Terry
I agree completely. I was talking to one of my best friends the other day, we were out to lunch with a mutual friend and they both admitted to cheating on their recent end of summer session exams. I was so sickened I couldn't finish my lunch. It really hurt me to think that they saw no problem whatsoever in what they had done, their excuse was, I already knew the material, I just didnt want to think about it. As someone who studys my butt off to pull off really great grades I'm completely disappointed because I know that there are people that are ahead of me who got their by wrongful means. They didnt suffer the blood, sweat and tears that I did in order to get to where I am now. I'm still one to get physically sick if I even look over in another persons direction and happen to see their answers. I've purposefully left blanks on my paper because I know that those answers, though I may have known them before, were not mine becasue of the doubt that I have after seeing someone else answers, its an unfair advantage that I dont wish to take.
It scares me that I may end up marrying someone like this, who sees it as not really cheating on me, but just gaining something he needs somewhere else. Or to think that my children will grow up in a culture where there is no right or wrong, everything is relative. My Dad and I are lifelong Red Sox fans and we were discussing all of the drug use in baseball recently concerning the home run records controversy. We agreed that we would both much rather have Babe Ruth stumble out onto the plate and knock a few hundred out of the park drunk then someone who had gotten their skills by means of steroids. At least Babe didnt hide his faults, he did it all on his own, drunk or not!
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