Last weekend an Australian athlete won a Hyrox event (some crazy exercise trend in gyms across the world) after she had soiled herself. This is not uncommon under extreme physical conditions, with it happening relatively regularly in marathons. However, Hyrox is indoors on a circuit, with equipment, meaning that the "trail of shit" affected everyone. At the time, there were no rules in place to stop her, so she kept on going. This was a sporting event, not life or death, and there were toilets available to use, though that would have likely cost her the win as it is timed.
Should this behaviour be celebrated?
Sure, on one hand it shows the dedication and drive, but one has to question the decisions to subject fellow competitors to this level of hygiene risk. And I wonder, would the woman be as calm as saying "a win is a win" (as she apparently did on her social media) if she had been behind the winner having to push through someone else's crap?
I don't think so.
But maybe it is more an extreme example of the selfishness and entitlement of people today, where achieving our own goals, getting our own win is paramount, no matter what kind of conditions we subject others to, or what detriment we may cause them. It is another sign of do not protect or help others, if it gets in the way of our own arbitrary desires.
How much would you sell someone out for?
We might often talk about corruption in politics, but those politicians are just people who have come through the same cultures as ourselves. So while they might take a bribe for millions, or tens of thousands, what are we willing to do to gain an advantage, and for what price? If the choice is doing the right thing or doing something wrong that benefits us, what amount are we willing to do it for?
I used to work a lot with sellers and there was one who would find every way he could to maximise his cut of the deal, even when it was obviously detrimental to his colleagues. Not only that, he was already earning more than those colleagues who would only get a small percentage bonus, but he would jump through hoops to stop them getting anything, even though the percentage gain for him was largely irrelevant. The lengths he would go to was almost pathological, as he would plan and connive his way into get a few more euros - and he had no shame.
Maximise the self?
I think that this self-maximisation mindset has always been there in the sense that we do want what is best for ourselves, but over the last few decades it is shifting into extremes, as far as general society operates. A big part of it has been driven by individualism and disconnection from each other, but I also think that it has been catalysed by the drive of "self-branding" that has been pushed by social media, which has turned us all into mini corporations.
Corporations are amoral.
Yes, people tend to lead corporations (though this is getting highly debateable with the usage of AI), but those people are beholden to the underlying and core rule of maximising shareholder wealth. Those shareholders are largely unknowns also, but are still treated as the core reason for the business. It isn't the product or the outcomes, it is for profit. Without profit, the business collapses, no matter how much good it does. Corporations are entities that can own like humans, but have special privileges above humans - like lower tax rates, no inheritance transfer tax, and they never need die.
Personal branding doesn't overcome our death, but what it does do is put ourselves before everything else, and makes us who engage in it far more like politicians than me might want to admit, by playing a game of marketing and manipulation in order to satisfy our own desires. And just like power corrupts politicians, the power we get from this game is going to corrupt our own decisions and actions, but usually for far less in value than a politician would get. That means that we could be considered worse than a politician, if we are willing to act like them, for less.
And do it shamelessly.
Shame.
Go for a walk into the local market, and shit yourself in front of everyone and see if you feel any sense of shame or embarrassment. See how strong your ego is, and whether your "I don't care what others think of me" muscle holds up. Shame and guilt seem to have been washed out of a lot of what we do, because a lot of what we do isn't seen publicly, and our worst behaviours we can hide. But, that doesn't mean we wouldn't feel them if we were seen.
Corporations are shameless, because they aren't human.
And, as I see it, the more we break away from other people, disconnect, hide behind screens and only look to maximise ourselves, the less shame and guilt we will feel, and the more bad behaviour we will engage in. As a result, we will create the conditions for others that will lead them down the same path and make the "Me for me" approach the standard, the culture. We will lose even more respect for each other, care less for each other, be less compassionate, less empathetic, less human.
We will still need to shit.
Taraz
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that depends if that person is normal and sane. For instance I would give away both trump and putin for free. Hell, I would even scrape together a bit of money for someone to take them away from news(and their offices). The problem is that I could not pay enough for their removal from politics. So we will likely have to wait and suffer a few more years at least. Maybe at that point they will be physically no longer able to lead a country...
Edit. Do you think that trump would be happy if he was sold for 30 pieces of silver? Considering the whole pretending to be jesus thing?
Reminds me of a joke that was probably making the rounds on early e-mails and bulletin boards long before social media.
A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on the highway outside Washington, DC. Nothing was moving. Suddenly, a man knocks on the window.
The driver rolls it down and asks, “What’s going on?”
“Terrorists have kidnapped the entire US Congress, and they’re asking for a $100 million dollar ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them all in gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, collecting donations.”
“How much is everyone giving, on an average?” the driver asks.
The man replies, “Roughly a gallon.”
Edit: if those 30 pieces of silver were American Eagle 1 oz. bullion coins, it would be around $2300 at today's prices and premiums.
I think they would both choose to go out with a bang. Especially Putin, who would be happy if his legacy was nuclear war.
At the time, it was about 4 months average salary.
I heard a philosophy discussion somewhere recently, I think about the Roman satesman Cicero, contrasting a virtue-based mindset of striving for excellence while doing business or politics in a way others would find ethical, as contrasted to the typical modern "how much can I get away with while holding to a contract or constitution, and how far can I stretch credulity to break the spirit or letter of the agreement and still get away with it?"
The sports shitshow is a similar situation. I heard they had to change the rules for the sport specifically to address her behavior and actions. Riffing on an old saying, some rules are written in blood because someone died. Others are written in shit because some people are just shitty people.
When working, I try to go above and beyond to the best of my ability, not just do the bare minimum to skate by, but it seems that is not rewarded in our society like we were told it would be when we were growing up. Extra effort is not rewarded with more pay, just more work. Our entire society seems to be stagnating under enshittification and shrinkflation everywhere, not just product quality and quantity at retail.
She set a precedent and therefore, they had to make a ule to deal with it. Fair enough. But, should a rule be needed? Yes - because of so many shitty people.
This is what I have experienced. And then if you work twice as hard as others and then reduce your workload 10%, you are treated as if you are lazy, even though you are still working 80% more than others.
Everything is degrading. It saddens me.
That seems almost like an addiction to me. If you are at the point where common sense and common decency comes in secondary, then you need to start rethinking the choices you are making. Also just another good example of why exercise is a bad idea ;)
You mean, a number two.
Haha, yes! :)
This made me think of real life. 🥲 I remember one time in the local market here in Bulacan, I accidentally dropped my bag of vegetables, and everything scattered on the floor. People were looking, and I felt so embarrassed even though it was just a small thing.😵 It showed me how strong shame can feel when others see us. I agree with your point. Many of our mistakes are hidden, but when they happen in public, we really notice how much we care about what others think.
Now, just imagine if you dropped a number two instead of your bag of vegetables.
Hmm, I think what people often say that, if someone else life is not destroy or ruin another person’s may not make it,” it is this kind of mentality that make us to believe that if you to do all we can at all cost to achieve our own happiness not minding whether it cost other their own happiness and that is the issues we have in our world today. The rich or privileged will rather monopolise everything all in the name of making profit and never think of the implications on the masses. No one care as long as they are living a good life. It is the same about the athlete too who want to win, it may be her only chance to securing the medal and you can’t really blame her, what we don’t see is the sacrifice behind it and she doesn’t want to miss it. We are all guilty of this at some point in our life where we want to achieve something without minding what it does to others whether directly or indirectly.
Politicians, athletes - and everyone else. We have reduced society to individuals, and the price is that no one cares about others.
I read and even saw how the body gave up way to early and still won the race. Sometimes we don't think anymore to our health or wellbeing just to continue, even if it is bad for us. Life and probably ourselves we push the boundaries and sometimes fail. And the question that remains: was it really worth it?
I guess she will get the hardcore followers to follow her and make money off it.
The interesting part isn't even the incident itself, but the mindset behind it. Winning can become so important that everything else suddenly becomes secondary. At some point, competition stops being about doing your best and becomes about getting the result at any cost and if you check most of the successful people in life right now, this is what they preach to those coming up. Win at any cost, the end justifies the means as long as the end is worth it
The position of every corporation on earth.
There was no rule about doing number 2 in the hyrox rulebook, but that should be obvious when it says in the rules that spitting and littering are not allowed. It's crazy how that did not register with any of the organizers.
It has now been updated to "shitting, spitting and littering"
I think the main issue is not the accident itself, but the decision to keep going when other people were affected. Winning is important, but I believe we should also think about how our actions affect the people around us.
Sportsmanship 101. Strive to win, but don't be a shitty person.
She won and was shitty.
Winner is as important as how we reflect to others.
Those kinds of accidents happen - but there is a limit where determination is ridiculous.
I think competition naturally pushes us to focus on winning, but it shoul not make us forget that other people are affected by our decisions.
Most people allow jealous and envy control them, I just wonder why people become selfish enough that they don't think about anyone else. Its a common thing especially for traders who sell stuff in the big market.
And this is the issue I have with it. The self-drive is impressive, the social behaviour is digusting.
In as much as winning is important, there are some certain things that shouldn't be done because a person want to get the win. Some people are heartless when it some to a competing that they don't even know when they are also falling, its just a shame.
Being competitive to the point of harm.
But the corporations point is the real issue. No face, no shame and personal branding is doing the same thing to us, just quietly.
"How much would you sell someone out for?" is probably the main question. In life does everyone have a price or a line they will cross for the right price. I know its easy to say No, i could never be bought but when we are not faced with the choices or options but damn, what a question and selling someone out doesn't have to be monetary in nature. Genuinely what will it take to compromise your ideals is a real question. I'm sure their should be a study about it somewhere out there.
I know you're not religious but I do feel like this is one of the drawbacks of turning away from Christianity.
I saw the news about that lady athlete before reading your post. I must say that I am impressed that she continued and actually won the event. Though what you say is valid as well and people after her using the equipment must have been disgusted.
And she did it publicly so her muscle of I don't care what people think about me held up :)
I did read a story following this in which a runner had a case of the - um - runs, to her embarrassment - and they came on unexpectedly and a few kms after she had passed a toilet. She managed to go in the bushes about 300 m from the finish line, and then finished, and ran straight to the loo and spent an hour there before she came out. She said it was awfully embarrassing and not something you'd reaally share with anyone ever, except for this 'news' event. Apparently it happens more often than people appreciate.