Is anyone else getting really tired of all the sanctimony coming from the media about this whole Marion Jones steroid thing? I just heard a CNN reporter say something like, “she cheated us all.”
Speak for yourself. I for one don’t feel one bit cheated. And I think the media pile on that’s taking place is, to say the least, unsavory.
This is the basic storyline: Marion Jones was such a great athlete, such a great human, a real American hero, and now look at her. . . A WORTHLESS JUNKIE. To be perfectly honest, I don’t care when Marion Jones lies to police about steroid use. Why? Because I don’t think steroid use, as the paridigmatical example of a victimless crime, should be illegal.
Sure, steroids cause all sorts of physical problems to the USER, but so do all sorts of other lawful human behavior (smoking, overeating, boxing, or even just banging your head against a wall in your home). If there are any adverse effects to society at large, however, I am unaware of them. You don’t to often hear of the junkie on the street robbing the old lady so he can get his next “steroid fix.” People might “roid” out every once in a while, but if that was a problem testes would have been clipped wholesale a long time ago.
So, if we move from the premise that her use of performance enhancing drugs is not morally wrong (and therefore should not be illegal), then what’s the big deal? It comes down to a simple case of cheating in a game, which, though not exactly admirable, is hardly a cause for international scorn.
If Marion Jones wants to use the drugs, great. If the Olympic Committee doesn’t want her to do so, that’s fine too. They’re the ones who organize the “games,” they get to call the shots. If I host a scrabble tournament at my house, and find out someone is hiding tiles in their pockets, they don’t win the tournament. The cops aren’t called because cheating in games isn’t illegal. (Unless of course, the cheating in the game also HAPPENS to be illegal, e.g. “The Last Boyscout” where a football player pulls out a gun and shoots his way to the goal line. Not only was that highly illegal, but it would also, technically speaking, be considered “cheating.”)
Basically she uses these supplements at her own peril. Maybe she’ll get caught, maybe she won’t. It’s a calculated risk that she and many other athletes feel the need to take. There’s an economic equation in there somewhere, but I don’t have the drive to go into that now. (Probability of success without steroids measured against probability for success with steroids adjusted for the probability of being caught).
Now, I didn’t go into this story thinking, wow Marion Jones is a real American hero and a great human. To be honest, I don’t know that much about her except that she won a bunch of medals at the Sydney Olympics. I hardly consider this information sufficient to characterize her as either a good or bad personally.
Maybe the media people know of things that I don’t. Maybe she gives to all sorts of charities and is an activist for the Sudanese people and volunteers 60 hours a week to the homeless junkie shelter. Well, then maybe she actually IS a great human being, steroid use be damned. I guess what I’m saying is that her use or non-use of steroids should have very little effect on how we see her AS A PERSON.
If this was the case I’d probably say something like “You know, Marion Jones, that woman who is really generous with her time and always kind and thoughtful and cheated in those silly little fantasy games that one year. What a great mix of generosity and chutzpah.”
But even Marion herself is making the mistake of putting this story in the kind of earth shaking terms that make it appear to be a big story. There she was this morning, crying on TV saying things like “I betrayed myself and my country.”
You betrayed your country? WTF? Calm down Marion.
No. You violated some regulation in an athletic event and you’re going to have to give back the medal because you broke the rules. Maybe it was stupid, maybe it wasn’t (it depends on how the equation above would work out), but in the end, you got caught.
The American people have ABSOLUTELY nothing to be upset about Marion, nor do the Olympics, nor whoever broadcast the Olympics (think of how many people tuned in to watch). The only people that can legitimately be upset are your competitors, because maybe they would have won had you not broken the rules. And maybe they can even bring a suit and get damages. This too, is a risk you entered into when you cheated.
But keep in mind that it’s highly possible that the woman we’ll end up passing the medal to used the exact same formula you did. Maybe she took steroids, maybe she didn’t. That would be determined by whatever she considered to be in her best interest at the time. In fact, assuming that she was a rational human being we should probably just assume that she did (use the formula, not the steroids).
So then the second place person will have the Gold. And all we’ll be able to say about her is that she won the 100 meter dash and that she may or may not have used steroids as well. . . which, by the way, will mean absolutely nothing.
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