Is it an accident or fate of history that seemingly momentous disasters in recent sport stories come from places that once were havens for Christian fundamentalists searching for freedom from oppression to practice their beliefs? There seems to be a parallel, or at least I see a parallel. For me it is oddly amusing to connect the dots. History doesn’t repeat itself, but human nature does.


Re: The unwarranted mythology of Oscar Pistorius

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/the-daily-beast/9876526/The-unwarranted-mythology-of-Oscar-Pistorius.html

How is this any different than the unwarranted mythology of (insert name of nation here)?

No question the author is fundamentally correct regarding true athletes specifically, not just wannabe’s in general. But this applies to everything, including the author. Why write about it? Why take some pleasure from helping to demolish another? Is the author, by diminishing another, elevating his self? All of this begs the elemental questions about human nature. Is the highly competitive survival instinct of humanity, that is head to head physical competition, no longer acceptable to a self supporting society no longer listening to the ‘state of nature’ of a long ago past? Do we have to struggle any longer? Must we compete for mates for procreation? Must we strive for higher, faster, stronger? Must we compete for grades, schooling and work? Are we now becoming the ultimate Calvinist society, divesting itself of all base ‘natural’ instinct and its resulting self expression in favour of uniformity, obedience, hard work for possible salvation in the hereafter? And the fear that someone somewhere is happy? The here and now is so determined, constructed, safe (the only predator we fear is the psychotic human as shown by all our TV programs, ie ‘The Following’, and pop culture books ie The Hunger Games) that life IS boring and the contest between unbridled human ‘nature’ and the sedated modern world is becoming more and more protracted. We emphasize one over the other at various moments sometimes apart from one another, but sometimes confusingly overlapped.

As a critical, perhaps cynical from time to time, thinker, I can see some of the world as it is from a position of experience. I am not too concerned by that, but what must the inexperienced youth of today make of what they see. Their base natures being enticed by ‘Axe’ commercials and then the sedation of the ‘rules’ of a safe community and then the ‘inoculation’ of hard honest work, for money, as a means to all that is valuable in life.



Re: DutchNews.nl – Dutch cycling star Michael Boogerd admits doping up to 2007

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/03/dutch_cycling_star_michael_boo.php

Yah, and now it seems in those days if you didn’t dope you weren’t a real cyclist. And if now everybody says they doped, then it really was a level playing field as Armstrong said. There sure must have been a lot of blind eyes…sponsors, mechanics, directeurs, trainers, etc, etc. which means…Everybody benefitted from the money, from the lowest to the highest, even the public who lined the road.  After all the pro cycling organizations weren’t murdering anyone, didn’t cause societal unrest nor debauchery! After all, how many people willingly and knowingly risk and die on any job in the real world, say, in the oil drilling business, construction or transportation?

The only guys taking a big risk in cycling were the riders and their health; besides if you died on the job you would be mourned by many, could become a hero and have a marker placed beside the road. So, then…if everyone was doing it, most knew it was going on and most everyone benefitted, then why was/is it illegal?

So, in walks the American purest, a real Puritan of the American tradition of its early settlers, hard line moralist religious people, taking down Armstrong and the rest. The Inquisitors have largely done their work, thumbscrews and all. They have made once solid teammates and comrades become traitors to each other and appear as thieves and pirates to the public at large. If taken too far with all this, as Puritans are likely to do, we will get to the Salem witch trials and begin burning innocents and soon no-one will ‘play’ anymore as it is another thing that only reveals the excesses of human activity, a sin, something according to the Puritans condemned by God as impure. The seven deadly sins versus their corresponding virtues, the contest of which, for most of us, is too much to deal with and is, in the end, equally destructive in their strict adherence at either end of this spectrum. Author Walsh would do much for the sport of cycling if he were to ‘study up’ regarding real life, get down off his high ‘bike’ and see it all for what it is rather than from his own poor me victim position.

Efforts to be ‘reasonable’ have largely left the building leaving everyone everywhere left to ponder what to do as we now watch the lawyers sue and counter sue. It’s only cycling, people! Leave the Puritans to clean up their own backyard, God knows there is plenty to do with, murder, mayhem and Las Vegas! So, get on your bike and ride!!


Re: Cycling Lobby Group Urge Armstrong To Make Full Confession

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/news/cycling-lobby-group-urge-armstrong-make-full-confession-184955338.html

The fundamentalist religious undertones are quite evident – Armstrong’s confession in order to begin the journey of salvation of his individual soul and to purify the community from a corrupt old church, the UCI, is the primary goal of the new puritan cycling community of competitors, sponsors and followers. The puritan church, USADA in this case, with its most puritanical leader are lost and confused with the attitude of a non-believer, a realist, like Armstrong. It is further fascinating to listen to the ongoing consternation of the puritan leadership of the USADA as it tries to legitimize itself as the grand, universal, arbiter of athletic souls through the epistles of its beliefs and its truth about sport above all others. Sanctimonious attitudes writ large. The puritan church has managed to achieve and receive contrition from the rollers who fell from grace, a rag tag group of ‘born again’ now evangelical riders and managers who now lead the charge and acceptance and obedience from the rest, all except one.

But what to do with the sacrilegious barbarian, the Viking Armstrong, who follows his own code of personal honour different from that of the collective as believed by the fundamentalist USADA hierarchy? An honour forged in competitive combat in the peloton, on the road, rather than from the comfort of the office chair where only idealized principles are discussed, and where nary a drop of sweat is noticed during these lofty incantations. The voices and sounds of disbelief, the begging and cajoling of the puritan leaders for Armstrong to come clean, to save himself, to cleanse his soul, is heard everywhere. But would it save himself? Armstrong is condemned either way, his victories not just taken away, but his participation erased from history itself. Or would Armstrong’s ‘confession’ save and further legitimize the church, the USADA, thereby making their position canon in the world of sport. Is that what it’s all really about? Must the USADA have every soul, every bended knee, every last corruption rooted out?

If the canon from the USADA were the last word on what is right and good in sport, even above the old church, the UCI, then, if they are so right and certain, why not leave the ‘unbelievers’ behind, to die in ignominy as it were, and move on? Why put all this effort in reclaiming the one soul of the recalcitrant and unrepentant Viking Armstrong? Is that one individual so central to the legitimate existence of all that he is to be hounded for his confession and conversion to USADA canon?

Though the puritans would wish to have any acknowledgment of Armstrong’s existence expunged from memory, the best they can hope for is his dying confession screamed to the god of sport as the flames consume him, purifying his soul for the legitimacy of the god of sport and his representative on earth, USADA, and to cleanse the guilt of those who believed and followed him in error.