Michael Phelps: what have we learned?

Many of you are probably aware of the recent photo released by a British tabloid paper “News of the World” showing newly minted swimming legend Michael Phelps inhaling a substance from a marijuana pipe (commonly referred to as a “bong”).    Phelps has since admitted to inhaling marijuana, delivering the following statement:

"I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment," Phelps said in the statement released by one of his agents. "I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again.” 

While this apology left me very disappointed, I found even more disappointing the results of a poll from an article on Fox Sports.  The poll asked the question, “How do you feel about Michael Phelps smoking pot?”   The two answers to choose from were:

1) “I’m dismayed.  I can’t believe he would do that!”

2) “He’s 23 years old - can we all relax?”

As I am writing this, 149, 802 people have taken the poll.  Roughly 8 out of 10 (79% to 21% last I checked, down from 81% to 19% 20 earlier this afternoon) chose number 2 as their response.

I find the results to be very sad. Why?  Because it doesn’t seem to be bothering many people that Phelps did it…because of his youth.  The young part makes it all okay because we expect young people to behave in such a fashion; if it were someone older then we wouldn’t be so accepting of the situation. 

It’s bad enough that Phelps pulled the, “I’m young-so-give-me-a-break,” angle in his apology, but to have his sentiment verified by thousands upon thousands of people is much, much worse.  I already knew our culture has cripplingly low expectations for our young people, but every painful reminder (like this poll and Phelps’ apology) just makes it more painfully sad to me.  It only gets worse when you consider that many of the 20% percent disappointed in Phelps actions only expected more because he makes a bunch of money, not that he is an adult and should act like it regardless of his monetary worth.  

There are many factors contributing to the conditions of today’s irresponsible, reckless, dependant, free boating, shallow, ADD youth; our culture’s low expectations is one of the most significant reasons.  If there was one thing I could say to Michael Phelps I would say the same thing I say to any other of my peers…I expect better.   I don’t believe we should be respecters of persons in applying the proper standards.   We should expect the same sort of proper behavior from young people coming from low, income single parent homes that we expect from rich kids, athletic phenomena, or an average kid from an average middle income suburb.

I could start really ranting, but I’ll wind down instead.  To answer the question in my blog title, we have learned the myths of adolescence are just as strong today as they have ever been, if not stronger.   We have also learned that Michael Phelps should read the articles linked below, as should you, if you haven’t already. :-)     

The Myth of Adolescence Part 1

The Myth of Adolescence Part 2

Adolescence is Permanent

I don’t want to pile onto Phelps or sound like I am laying our culture’s problems at his feet.   Regardless of his mistake(s) he has achieved great and extraordinarily difficult things.   He has demonstrated dedication in driving towards a goal that I would love to demonstrate.   But, all that was done in pursuit of medals and endorsements.  The true test of every persons character comes when the limelight does not seem to be on them, and people aren’t pushing you forward.   As mentioned above, I don’t expect Phelps, Miley Cyrus, or Vanessa Hudgens to act exceptionally, only the way I expect any other young person to act…properly and maturely.   Let’s see how Phelps handles it from here on out.

God bless and veritas supra omnis!

P.S. Here is an update for the poll numbers given above.   With 153, 583 votes in (the last two minutes have yielded 500 votes) the percentages are holding steady at 79% for number 2 and 21% answering with number 1.

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Drugs: the core issue

I have been thinking a lot recently about drug policy and my position on it, and while I am not prepared to address the broad range of issues inherent to the totality of the discussion, I would like to state my position on one point of contention in the debate.

There have been many on the pro-legalized-drugs side of things that offer up an argument or train of thought in regards to law enforcement that I would like to address.  The argument goes, “If drugs weren’t illegal people wouldn’t spend so much money on them (thus creating a lucrative market for suppliers and distributors), and there wouldn’t be so much drug related crime.  There wouldn’t be drug wars between violent gangs, there wouldn’t be theft to support drug addictions, wouldn’t be so many consumers in prison on the tax payer’s dime, etc.”    

To this train of thought and its variations (the above is my own wording but I believe it accurately frames the logic behind it) I would say…we wouldn’t have so much murder related crime if we made murder legal.  There wouldn’t be an opportunity for evil people to benefit from murder (professional hit men) if murder was legal.  For that matter, we wouldn’t have much theft related crime if we legalized theft, or at least petty theft.  There wouldn’t be professional thieves…wouldn’t be vibrant black markets, etc.

Obviously, those are fairly extreme examples, but do you see what I am saying?   This train of logic, to my mind, is an unacceptable approach to the issue logically and is blatantly un-biblical besides.   Where does the Bible say that the government should reward evil and not reward good?  In what way does logic decree that a completely unrestrained society can be just or functional?  Regardless of what you believe to be the proper function of government, in order for you to believe in government itself you must believe in some sort of basic order…order that allows society to function.  Whether enforcing this established order is challenging or whether this established order presents an opportunity for ingenious criminals and evil people to profit by circumventing and breaking laws  is also beside the point.  The point is, “What is right?”

The issue properly at the center of the drug debate is not “Would legalization cut down on crime (by taking away the opportunity for crime) and expensive law enforcement?”   The issue is whether the regulation of drugs is a proper function of the government.   To that specific point I will say nothing in this post.   All I want to say is that laws by their very nature create a positive and a negative, crime as the negative and law abiding as the positive.  We don’t eliminate the positive because it creates a negative if we believe that there is such a thing as right and wrong. 

If one believes in no laws then by all means they should say so…only a free, open and honest exchange of ideas and beliefs can lead to intellectual sharpening, moral stimulation and steeling strength.  But, if you believe in having some structure of society then it seems you must agree with me that the above outlined argument (to which I am responding) is quite wrong, unproductive, and blatantly un-biblical.

I am of course open to being proven wrong or hearing any insight and wisdom others might have to offer.   I probably don’t know fully the limits of my knowledge and wisdom (such as it is) thanks to the curse called pride, but I do know that I have somewhat easily reached limits. :-)

As a closing note to explain a little where I am coming from…I don’t believe this nation is a theocracy in the vein of the Old Testament, nor do I believe I am called to advocate an Old Testament type theocracy.   I believe the Bible speaks to the issue of civil governance in limited quantities.  But I also believe that, as a Christian, I must advocate a God honoring basic social structure when and how I can with the understanding that my influence on the actual making of law (thus creating the positive of law abiding and the negative of law breaking) may be limited.  Not all answers can be found or goals achieved through the government, thankfully.   However, there is a minimum that we must fight for fiercely…because if that minimum is not met not only will we no longer be under the blessing of God as a nation, which is curse enough itself…we will be under His wrath…a truly frightful thing to think of.

 

God bless and veritas supra omnis!

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