COMPETITION

The Democrats forcing Senator Al Franken, one of their most effective legislators, to resign over unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment while Republicans openly supported Roy Moore, an accused pedophile running for the U.S. Senate in Alabama, got me thinking.

We Americans are a competitive people. It’s in our DNA. We were born as a nation out of a revolution. Our history is a series of wars. We compete politically, financially, educationally, recreationally, physically, mentally, emotionally...., we’ve even made cooking and decorating your house into competitive sports (I can’t wait for the National Vacuuming Championships). And, since we claim to be civilized people, we have established norms, rules and laws for every one of these competitions. We refer to them as “The Rules of the Game”, which, since we have turned almost every facet of our lives into a competition, sort of suggests that we tend to see life as a game.

There are two “competing” philosophies about competition in this country.

“It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.” -  Famed sports writer  Grantland Rice

"Winning isn’t everything, it's the only thing.” -  Often attributed to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi (after whom the NFL Super Bowl Trophy is named), who said it often, but actually originated with college football coach Red Saunders.

The philosophy you choose to follow will determine your world view, how you live your life and how you behave. Both philosophies have merit and are acceptable. However, if you are in the RIce camp and are competing against someone in the Lombardi camp, well.... tennis great Martina Navratilova said it best. “Whoever said ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts’, probably lost.”

The problem with all of this “game theory” is, life is not a game. Some things are more important than others. Whether or not your horse wins the blue ribbon at the next horse show or your daughter’s traveling soccer team wins the “championship” this year probably isn’t going to change your or your daughter’s life very much, if at all. Horse shows and soccer matches are games. But, whether or not Congress cuts Social Security is going to severely impact many millions of lives. That’s a competition, but it’s not a game. It’s a battle. It’s real life and, if you believe Americans need Social Security, then “winning IS the only thing”.

What does that mean?

I said earlier that all competitions have norms, rules and laws. Let’s refer to them as NRLs for the purpose of this discussion. NRLs are not tangible. They are not a thing, or a place, or a physical line in the sand. They are ideas expressed with words and words are not precise. They are subject to interpretation. Those interpretations create a cloud around the words, like morning fog on a county road. If there is going to be a real life battle governed by NRLs where “winning is the only thing”, it is going to take place in that cloud, in the fog, not on one side of the road or the other. That cloud is the “playing field” and, if you need to win that battle, you have to, at a minimum, take advantage of the whole playing field.

Again, what does that mean?

Let’s go back to the NRLs that govern competitions – games and real life battles – and look at the consequences for not following them. The consequence for not living up to a norm is an intervention, the consequence for breaking a rule is a penalty and the consequence for violating the law is exclusion. So, the only thing that will take you out of a game, or a battle, which would mean you automatically lose, is violating the law.  And that’s only if you get caught and convicted. Everything else is in the cloud. Everything else is within the “field of play” and if you don’t use the whole “field of play” you are giving your opponent a huge advantage and will most likely lose. Ask Martina. Ask Richard Branson. Ask Barney Frank. Ask any consistent winner. You can’t win by “playing nice.” Violating the law is cheating, If you get caught and convicted you get kicked out of the competition and automatically lose. That’s the only real “line in the sand” and, again, only If you get caught and convicted. Everything else is “fair play”.

If you are having trouble with this idea, keep in mind that you can switch camps for different aspects of your life. In my private life I compete in the sport of fencing (sword fighting). There, I’m in the Rice camp. I go to the club or to a competition to fence well. I’m good, but I usually lose to people who come to win, even if I fence well. In my professional life I’m in the Lombardi camp. I deal with human lives and, when lives hang in the balance, it is only about getting them what they need – winning – no matter what it takes (manipulating people, bending the rules, taking advantage of the loopholes, etc.) short of violating the law. As long as I don't do anything that can get me kicked out of the competition, I don't care what peole  say or think of me. All that matters is winning for the people I serve.

Getting back to Al Franken, conservatives tend to be in the Lombardi camp where winning is the only thing and they “play to win” using the whole field and then some. Liberals tend to be in the Rice camp and are often more concerned with “how they play the game” than winning it, which is why they lose so often. And they will continue to lose until they get off their “high horse” and get down in the dirt, or, to use my earlier metaphor, off the side of the road and into the fog where the battle is actually being fought and where it will be won or lost.

Yes, I think the Democrats forcing Al Franken to resign was stupid. What do you think?