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Athletes aren’t Heroes

Athletes should not be paid more than teachers! It is one of the great injustices of Life. And I don’t just feel that way because my mother and father taught for many years or that Ms. Ramirez from 2nd grade was super-hot (I won the perfect attendance certificate that year). No, I think teachers and all professions, for that matter, should compensate solely on their positive societal impact. The greater the positive societal influences, the higher the compensation. On another note, I believe the gap between the occupations’ societal impact and its proportional compensation is what really makes a Hero. The teacher’s hard work and value to society combined with the limited monetary compensation makes him/her a Hero in my book.

Entertainment, although necessary in our increasingly discouraging times, is not hero-work. With all the impact this virus is having on our society and communities, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the real heroes in our world wear a mantle of thanklessness. Health Care workers are not just doctors. The nurses, nurse aides, in-take personnel, hospital security, hospital janitors and the like are the day-to-day, impactful members of the health care industry. Moreover, very similar to teachers, those kind of workers often get a middling check paired with high responsibility.

Athletes are as much heroes as let’s say… tight-rope walkers: both are skilled, but they’re essentially useless to the overall functionality of society. Now before you label me as some anti-sport, semi-masculine bookworm (see previous post Boring Beetle), you should know that I have spent a good deal of my discretionary time on sports (see previous post Truly America’s Pastime). In addition, I know first-hand, with my failure to fabricate a sports career, that an athlete has unique physical skills. However, the professional athlete’s application of those physical skills are non-contributive. How much impact can Aquaman have on the swim team or The Flash playing wide receiver for the 49ers?!

Estimate the Opponent

I’ve always said, “Underestimation can turn a farmer into a general”. To me, that maxim speaks to the severe danger of underestimating an “opponent” (I’m very competitive and slightly paranoid so I treat most people like opponents). And as I’ve applied the Never-Underestimate Philosophy to my life, with fruitful results, the philosophy is not FOOL-PROOF (pun intended). There will always be someone who’s talent or ability is worthy of UNDERestimation. Consequently, overestimation can create a detrimental blind-spot that could potentially lead to the downfall of any budding, young strategist. It’s a delicate understanding, but an important one. Chess seems to illustrate the point most clearly: during a game with a new opponent the advanced player can create an intricate strategy with built-in defenses against the most likely moves ahead, which only works if the other player knows the likely moves. If one player is better than the other, he or she can open-up a direct path to victory because he or she is guarding against more complicated routes. So when in business, sports or life, in general, the analysis of the opponent should take place at all levels of the game. Don’t over or under, just estimate the threat!

Truly America’s Pastime

I failed at baseball. I wanted to play professionally and I failed. In the process, I also failed all my family and friends. Ok – maybe I’m being harsh – I pretty much just failed myself. The odds of becoming a professional athlete is slim, but it felt possible on more than a couple of occasions. Alas, it was not meant to be and so I became what I was supposed to be: a writer. After all, if I did somehow make it, I would be an interloper, a trespasser in the game because I had neither the skills nor the natural talent to excel in it…right? Right…two-thousand seventeen Houston Astros – nudge, nudge – right???

The more I hear about this Sign-Stealing scandal and think back to the Steroid Era and then the game’s many unnamed dalliances with unfair play: corked bats, spit-balls, Black Sox debacle…Pete Rose, amphetamine abuse, drug abuse, etc etcetc. I begin to wonder if talent and skill really mattered at all. Perhaps, I simply didn’t have the moral flexibility necessary to play professional baseball (says the man raised in a housing project in Queens between the infamous Queensbridge and Astoria Projects). Or, perhaps, I lacked the the strong creative mind that was necessary to aid in the destruction of a once beautiful pastime.

Or, maybe, baseball’s indiscretions make it more American. People used to speak about the purity of baseball as well as the overall purity of sports. Competition that relied on effort and training, which highlighted the framework of the American Dream: work hard and you will be successful. It was in that purity of competition that many Americans ensconced themselves so they could ignore the history of slavery, the history of sexism and the history of social injustice that underlay this country (more so than a “Dream”). Perhaps, baseball was supposed to fail to truly succeed in actually aligning itself to the mantra of work hard while people are watching, deviate when necessary and NEVER get caught. Maybe now baseball can finally be American’s Greatest Pastime.

Dis-Harmony: A Counter Culture Blog

Humans can animate anything. We move within this planet and this Universe mingling and separating from each other all the while breathing life into ACTIONS and OBJECTS! Often times, the friction or magnetism between these Actions and Objects can spark an evolution to an even higher form of life called Culture. This aggregate cloud composed of humans and human nature and human creation float about with only the steady harmony of Universe to rely on. A harmony that connects everything!

Hello! My name is Edwin E Cadiz and this blog defines and dissects Culture by challenging the Actions and Objects as well as the people that create them. More than being a Counter-Culture blog in the sense of comprehending the contrary, I hope to strike opposing notes in the very harmony of the Universe just to see what happens next.

Welcome to Strip Clubs are Sad Discos! A Blog for the evolving and challenging mind. Questions everything, but don’t take anything too seriously!