#162 Cheating to "win"

     Yesterday, two badminton teams were kicked out of the Olympics for blatantly 'throwing' matches so as to gain advantage in later games. Today, many spoke up about the fact that such tactics have been going on for a long time, so yesterday's punishment seems to have been for poor acting skills.

     Civilized societies have explicit and implicit rules of behavior. Society works harmoniously, like one big living organism (which it basically is), when members (like individual cells in the organism's body) communicate and collaborate openly and fairly with each other, following the same single set of (physiological) rules. Rogue individuals, whether cheating on taxes or spraying people with bullets, are equivalent to cancer cells in an organism. The justice (immune) system is designed to find, rehabilitate or eliminate those who can't play by the rules.

     It's scary and sad how much drive, effort, and energy there is behind individuals who cause mayhem. Even after they're caught and convicted, their blame-shifting continues (Lance Armstrong). Imagine if all the energy from hackers, Wall Street embezzlers, arms dealers, 0%-mortgage criminals, pick-pockets, and other predators could be channeled into civilized human activities ...
     No individual's drive towards personal wealth and fame, no matter how fervent or even rabid, can be allowed to trump civilized society's collective welfare. Moral outrage alone is insufficient. If one can't play the game according to civilized rules, s/he must be removed from the game until s/he's ready to play fair. Loopholes must be scrupulously eliminated, perpetrators caught and re-educated. Primitive self-centered antisocial acting out is a cancer to perpetrators and society alike. Justice means restitution and rehabilitation.

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