Exactly- I saw this movie also.
Nice point, Choocher.
They say it nicely in that movie, and frankly watching Freakonomics had me thinking of Lance, Floyd and their ilk, along with many other top sportsmen in other sports also. I find it interesting that it's really Americans who have this righteousness about 'cheating' in competitive situations.
I was moved by the human-ness inherent in the sumo's cheating. These are men who live in close quarters with each other for most of their lives. They have a blood father, but closer to them is their 'ringmaster', who trains them, and you can see why you would lose a match against a man whose has much more to gain by it than you do, if you've already won your allotted amount. Being ruthless in a small pen with other humans makes you less human.
Let's honestly take a look at the competitive landscape. For athletes, the situation is particularly bleak. A friend of mine is making a documentary on head trauma-related football injuries right now within the context of the NFL, and interviewing former players, their wives, neuroscientists currently trying to address the problems facing the athletes, and let's face it- in almost every situation, save the 1% who make SERIOUS money (usually in endorsements outside their salaries)- and sometimes not even them- pay the price. It's a HUGE price, and often in the least understood form- mental illness.
Sadly all modern society's most "successful" companies (Wal-mart) externalized almost all their costs, hiding behind faceless corporations who run them (UCI anyone), who create lots of wealth, yet the athletes who provide the 'entertainment' are largely left out in the cold, bearing most of the human costs.
In the NFL, it's no different- 50 years of having an alternate word for concussions (getting your bell rung) doesn't make it NOT a concussion. I've seen footage of one of the hard-to-say-he's-lucky men whose (now ex-)wife still hangs around the hospital to feed him food, like a baby. He looks like one too, head hanging, completely out of it.
Other former NFL athletes with wives and kids who are scared about the CTE they have, and what it might mean- they are HUGE powerful men without full command of their minds. Several NFL players have lost their lives after the fact- 75% of NFL players lose their wives and families 3 years after leaving the NFL and very few can adapt to post-NFL life, much of which has to do with their participation in the sport itself created such brain damage.
Translate this into cycling terms. Witness right now the efforts the rider's union has to make in order to be heard regarding their own safety in races (radios). It's ridiculous. If you watch cycling's political landscape, you can see more clearly what is happening with this modern 'externalize-everything' viewpoint. Modern is not always better- especially THIS trend.
So, the athletes pay ALL the costs in staggering life-changing and superhuman performances (which are truly so physically and mentally difficult that it often takes a serious spiritual life to endure), broken bones, broken lives (after their career) and so on, yet we accuse them of CHEATING? Who is cheating WHO, exactly, here?
It's EASY to be a governing body or an armchair critic, but you don't SUFFER like the pro athletes themselves do. But it's not just them, it's their wives and families also who are sacrificing HUGELY.
So, please understand the context of what you're saying when you call someone a cheater. THINK about it a little. These are people, not characters in a film.
Be a human being in your thinking, not an idealist. Idealism is violence, a place far from the field beyond right and wrong-doing (to paraphrase Rumi). and it's incredibly honorable the work that all athletes do, ESPECIALLY cyclists and endurance athletes.
They SUFFER FOR A LIVING. Try to be a human toward them, as their humanity is what you're witnessing while watching bike races. Competition is really an inhuman system, inherently violent, and cycling is the ultimate macho sport- in order to win, you must suffer MORE than the next guy. Think about that for a second, will you? Now call someone a cheater. You can't.
I think what we call cheating simply lessens their suffering to some extent, lessens the cost that it takes on their lives. In the small world of pro cycling, one has to respect even their cheating and understand it in the fuller sense of what. they. do.
Thanks.
Choocher said:
I just saw the movie version of Freakonomics, which I would highly recommend to anyone who hasn't read the book or already seen the movie. One of the sections, called Pure Corruption, centered on match fixing in sumo wrestling and the mathematical analysis of results to prove it. There was an interesting discussion regarding incentives and benefits, and the thought was put forward that, given a corrupt system, some personalities (sociopathic, one might argue) would very quickly realize how the system worked and have a very fluid moral compass. This really made me think of Lance.
There was also a portion that described how the sumo regulatory federation was complicit and this complicity went all the way up through law enforcement to the top of Japanese society. The UCI and Pat M., the IOC and Hein Verbruggen, among others, of course.
The topic of whistle blowers also came up. I couldn't help but think of Floyd. The whistle blowers in sumo encountered the same resistance that Floyd has, despite having credible experience to back up their claims (much like Floyd). It was very interesting to see the same pattern of corruption I see in cycling but in a sport I know nothing about (sumo). If you haven't seen it, check it out.