The Inquisitional Age

Jim Hoagland offers the best commentary on the sins and scandals of sports and democratic life that I have read to date.

The Summer of Skepticism

No decent person is proud of bad behavior, including those who engage in it with time and reflection.

But this "Inquisitional Age" is hardly progress, as Jim argues convincingly.

It is destructive and cynical. And it does not build anything better.

Talking about Barry Bonds' or Mark McGwire's steroid use is fair game. They cheated the game and they are responsible for that. In the larger world of drug use and abuse, McGwire's loyalty to friends and teammates is also something that I respect. I have many friends who use drugs or have used drugs and I have smoked pot and made serious mistakes in my own lifetime. And there is no way in hell you would get me to rat on my friends, no matter what indictment or punishment you put in front of me. And I admire the hell out of Mark McGwire for doing the same when he was in front of Congress.

Having said that, steroids are clearly bad for the game and doping and the NBC referee gambling scandal and all sorts of sins are bad for professional sports and not something that we want to see for another generation of professional athletics.

What is not ok is hounding these guys into perpetuity or playing holier-than-thou. Neither of these instincts are noble. And the idea that an aggressive move in that direction is progress would be ridiculous, really, if it weren't so sad, all at once.

The greatest tragedy of the early 21st century is that we have acted as if behaving in socially, legally, or politically repressive, pressuring, and mean-spirited, self-righteous ways is some kind of progress. What kind of progress I have no clue. I don't feel a part of that progress. And I imagine many Americans would feel left out of that idea of progress, since it's whole point is to out those who commit public sins (and private sins, when it suits our pleasure).

All I know is that this is never an America that I could ever be inspired by or impressed with its virtue or values. Because as Jesus of Nazareth argued convincingly and with much risk to his freedom and life 2000 years ago, ripping away at the vices of others is no virtue and leaves the transgression of pride and other sins, likely, untouched in the hearts of the inquisitor.

This period may be many things. But noble is not one of them. It is sanctimony wrapped in more high minded clothing. That was the kind of sanctimony that more genuinely religious men like Jesus of Nazareth or the Buddha taught us to avoid and that has characterized almost literally every more illiberal, repressive period in our history.

The Puritans thought they were doing God's will or establishing order or whatever excuse we give for this pious instinct. So did the Prohibitionists. So did Joseph McCarthy.

They weren't. But they thought they were. And they left a lot of peoples' lives in the wake of that belief.

And, as Jim points out, this zeitgeist that has taken hold leads nowhere, builds nothing, accomplishes less than it destroys.

Perhaps we are fine with that. But it doesn't leave much room for getting better. And it offers plenty of room for all of the worst and most illiberal instincts in the world to be given alibi that they don't deserve and which constitutes the ugliest and most destructive instincts that humanity has to offer.

And the whole of progress cannot do otherwise than to work in a more compassionate, constructive direction. Because to argue otherwise is to try to reverse more than 2000 years of lifting repression as the most important idea, value, and outcome of progress.

I'm proud of that history. And we have better choices to make if we are going to work consistently in its spirit.

Love,
Ben