Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim took advantage of the media
attention for his 900th win to give us his views on gun control in
view of the recent school shooting. It’s not as if he’s made a particular study
of this – that much was clear from his remarks – or has any reason to be
trusted as an authority on any subject other than coaching basketball. I understand that if people give you the
opportunity to express your favorite opinion to a wide audience, it is likely
hard to turn away. But how does one not
have the sense of perspective to realise you are rather a fraud to be offering
an opinion at all?
It is similar to Christian athletes and Grammy winners
taking the opportunity to give all the praise and glory to My Lord Jesus. That’s terrible theology unless one bends the
meanings of words significantly, but at least in that situation, they are not
just giving their opinion about God in general, but as it specifically relates
to their work and success. Had Boeheim blathered on evangelising about some
remarkable meditation technique that allowed him to focus better on the task at
hand, that would at least relate to his expertise and the moment.
We listen to them because we like famous
people and think they must know something we don’t. Even more, we believe that
success in one area has some spillover effect that people understand a lot of
other stuff, too. I recall an irate
comment during Iran-Contra in the 80’s to the effect that “Who would you rather
have leading you into battle, Oliver North or Ted Kennedy?” That’s pretty clearly going to go in Ollie’s
favor, but it’s not the right question.
I trust North to lead troops more than I trust my dentist, too, but that
doesn’t mean I want the colonel working on my teeth.
They believe they are worth listening to for different
reasons. They have succeeded at fairly
arbitrary, largely symbolic endeavors.
Double the size of a basketball court or halve the size of the ball and
over time, different players and coaches succeed at it. There would be some overlap, because athletic
and management skills have some transfer.
But in all likelihood, Coach Boeheim is in a different profession,
managing different people with less dramatic success and some other guy is
getting 900 wins. There are general skills
of music or acting, but styles and trends have enormous variability – change
the game and different bands and actresses become famous.
Therefore, they are used to inhabiting spaces of symbolic
importance for somewhat arbitrary reasons.
They are six-foot people operating sixty-foot animatronic figues
already. What’s a few more feet?
.
This is a good spot to check over at ESPN and see what Rick
Reilly has been writing, seeing that he now fancies himself an expert on social
events. Ah, a football player has lost
two teammates to suicide, and wants answers why. Yeah, that’s going to be illuminating. Young quarterback intermittently thinking
about other young men’s depression, sportswriter explaining that to us
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