Above All Else

Trey Smith

The sentiments of two sayings have always seemed to butt heads. I believe it has been this way since the very beginning, though it seems to be growing worse and worse.

The first saying is one most of us learned as children: It doesn't matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game. This is the ideal of sportsmanship -- the idea that winning a contest is not the end-all, be-all of human life.

The second saying is one made famous by legendary pro football coach, Vince Lombardi. On more than one occasion he was quoted as saying, "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." While one certainly can exhibit sportsmanship in victory, winning the contest is seen as the end-all, be-all goal of human life.

What I find interesting is that most people will tell you that they uphold the values of Saying #1 over Saying #2, yet if we look at their actions, the opposite is true!

I was thinking about this dichotomy while reading the following news report.

The crews from at least 10 yachts saw or heard that a sailboat capsized during a Northern California ocean race this year, but none stopped to help in the aftermath of the wreck that killed five, according to a report published on Monday.

Sailors participating in the Full Crew Farallones Race off the coast of San Francisco in April continued to race past the distressed Low Speed Chase sailboat while five sailors drowned and three struggled to stay alive in frigid water, according to a report by a U.S. Sailing Association independent review panel.

"The panel found it troubling that no boats appear to have dropped out or delayed their race in order to render assistance, which is a basic tenet of the sea, as well as the first Fundamental Rule of the Racing Rules of Sailing," the report said.

I don't know if the top finishers of this race received prize money, points or simply prestige, but it is very disturbing to think that whatever the sailors were awarded was deemed more important than human life!

But it's not just in the sporting world that we see this winner-take-all mentality. It is just as prevalent in corporate boardrooms and on Wall Street. Right now, in the Afternoon Matinee, I'm featuring the scathing documentary: Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room. The video tells of how one corporation embodied the winner-take-all mantra by enriching itself at the expense of millions.

The current sweep of austerity measures around the globe is another symptom of this mentality. Hedge fund managers and financiers are plundering the world's economic infrastructure to try to reap as much profit as possible. As we've seen from one scandal after another, the ideal of sportsmanship -- playing by the rules -- is for losers! Winning, by whatever means possible, is all that matters.

If others are left in the frigid water to drown, who cares?