Who Told You That?

My dad and I are both pretty big podcast fans, and as a runner, I have the opportunity to listen to sermons from churches I previously attended and just downright interesting podcasts about a variety of things on many occasions. My dad shared one with me that I listened to over the last couple jogs from a new series by Michael Lewis called Against The Rules. This was fascinating stuff. His first episode, "Ref, You Suck," deals with NBA officiating and then he ties this into the rest of society. The most pervasive message that you hear, particularly from young people in 2019 is "That's not fair." Maybe not explicitly like a four-year-old who has been denied a cookie from his mother, but that's certainly the message. Lewis takes a look at NBA officiating. If you are a fan of the NBA, you have observed that the relationships between referees and NBA stars are worse now than in any generation prior. What we may assume, as annoyed fans from the comfort of our couch, is that officiating must subsequently be worse now than ever before. But that's actually not true. 

Officiating is shockingly MUCH BETTER now than it has ever been and here's why. In the past, officials could have subconscious biases. For example, the noise of the crowd might sway them to give more calls to the home team. Or, a white ref calling a predominately black team's game, may, without realizing it or intending to do so, call the game for the other team. But now, we analyze EVERY move made by refs. The mistakes made by officials in the last two minutes of every game are actually made public. Refs are forced to eliminate these biases (and studies have shown that they have done so) and thus the game is more fair than ever before. If that's not enough, a replay center has been introduced where any time a ref really wants to the game can be stopped and calls can be reviewed. Instead of the ref effectively playing God, the ref doesn't have to have any confidence in his own calls, and several times a game, errant calls are corrected. Ask anyone who has worked in officiating for a long time or has been around the game of basketball for a long time: officiating at the NBA level is far better than it has ever been.

So the question is, why? Well, have you noticed who does the most complaining? It's not your no-name players from a scrappy little team just trying to get their first win in a month! It's the stars. The star-studded and two-time reigning defending NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors are freakishly good. They've won an unprecedented number of games in the past few years and their playoff success is unparalleled. Odds are, even if you, like my math teacher, think basketball is a stupid sport, or just too easy, you know a little something about their greatness. Interestingly enough, they also lead the league in ejections. Perhaps their most famous star, Kevin Durrant, was ejected FIVE times in a season. The same holds true of head coach Steve Kerr, who was quoted in the podcast saying, "You're right, I would never say the things I say to referee's to regular people." As far as other complaining goes, griping against refs happens from your other stars. LeBron James, a constant victim of the system. Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Chris Paul, these are the ones that find themselves being victimized more than ever before even though the game is fairer than ever before. 

The reason is shockingly simple: the game is fairer which actually works against stars, who are used to getting away with things that regular players would never be able to do, are now required to behave like normal people and they don't like it. They have lived in an era where they are the best, and therefore the rules must not apply to them. Teachers: does this sound like the students you are teaching this year? The reality of the matter is that here in America we are becoming more and more entitled and we are all becoming victims of the "unfair" bug. 

The first thought I have to this is that fair and equal are not the same thing and yet they are being equated as such in our world. Fairness refers to everyone having the same chance at success, the same chance to get a job and live a successful life. Equality refers to everyone having the same degree of success. Fairness means everyone has a chance to leave their legacy in the world. Equality is communism. How does this apply simply to our world? As a nerd, I deal with "Teacher's pet" remarks pretty frequently. Which is probably true. The relationships I have built with my teachers have been some of the best of my life. But the implication is that I'm a teacher's pet because the teacher had a random predilection towards me and was going to be unfair to the rest of her students. There are unfair teachers, but in almost every circumstance, teacher's pets are teacher's pets because they work their butts off, have good personalities, or do something that puts them in that situation. It's not usually being a kiss-up to the teacher by bringing in apples in a metaphorical (or literal) sense. Every student had the opportunity to have that kind of intimate relationship with a teacher and to do well in the class, but on account of their own laziness, they didn't get that. It's not unfair, but it sure isn't equal. This is a classic example of a propensity we all have, we blame the officiating rather than our own mistakes. The officiating isn't perfect, guys. But it's better now than it's ever been, and when you find yourself "losing" at life, you need to evaluate your own mistakes, rather than blame the officials like they owe you something! 

The world isn't completely fair, but everyone has the same opportunities, especially here in America. Some people, based on the situation that they live in, have to work harder to get to the same place. But you have the right to education here in America, and consequently, you can go pretty much wherever you want with the dedication to get there. While there are exceptions to this and I mean no disrespect if you know people to whom these exceptions apply, people who are in the dumps in America are there because their choices, and often their own laziness put them in those situations. That's it. It's not equal. But I don't understand who told you that it had to be equal. If you aren't willing to work hard, you aren't going to be as successful as those who are. There's a reason we've long feared communism in America, and it's that equality takes away the very American virtue that you work for what you get. There's a direct correlation between successful people and those who work hard. It isn't fair that some people have to climb staircase after staircase while those born into opulence have to press a button on an elevator to get there, but the opportunity is fair. 

Thus the problem we have isn't a problem that has anything to do with fairness and everything to do with entitlement. I don't know where along the line, but at some point along the line our perspectives changed so that anytime we are not getting the best out of a situation it is unfair. I don't know when that happened or who told us that we are owed anything. This life owes you nothing. This world owes you nothing. You are alive. That's enough. But I do know exactly why it's happening. The officiating, that is making sure we have an equal chance to succeed, that life is "fair" is better now than it has ever been before. Obviously there's no way to make it perfect, but on the whole, we live in a world where men and women, whites and blacks, rich and poor, have the same opportunities. And people are harnessing those opportunities to get ahead of us, and the spoiled, entitled person in us is upset about it. 

My whole case in this essay is based on this single principle: you are not owed anything. You have been given everything you need, and it is what you do with it that matters. Kids today who are reading this, listen up. You have a certain set of human rights. And believe it or not, those rights are actually being protected and preserved. You DO NOT have a right to any material thing, you do not have a right to challenge authority in your life that is not directly violating your human rights. Listen, guys, you may disagree with your politicians, but when those rights aren't violated, you are under obligation to submit to the authority. The fact of the matter is that we want everything handed to us on a silver platter, and we believe that everything in this world should be handed to us on a silver platter, and that is a level of entitlement that is absolutely shocking. I just want to break it to you like it is: you aren't that special. The world doesn't owe you anything. The world does not revolve around you, it does not care about your interests that much, and oh, by the way, neither do I. Does that offend you? Does it offend you that other people are getting ahead by hard work while you play Fortnight from your living room? Good.  

Here's my point in a sentence: the world now is fairer than it has ever been before and that has the potential to greatly offend those of us that are used to getting our own way. The fact is you are not entitled to anything, and the virtues of respect, submitting to authority, and most importantly, hard work are not outdated, but more necessary than ever before. The playing field is as level as it is going to get. The score is zero to zero. You don't win the game by complaining that the officiating is bad. The officiating will get their paycheck one way or the other. The only way to ensure that you get yours is to get off your ass and work hard. Simple as that.