It is 00.14 and I am officially starting this fourteen minutes after my deadline. It was also about half an hour ago, after a ridiculous argument/debate over a couple of pints that I decided to change what I had planned to write about. Needless to say I’m not completely convinced how this decision is going to work out for me……
Just to let you know my original article was to be about Student Fees, the Students’ Union single handedly making sure they didn’t come in (eh-hem…), ignorance, selfishness, a government on its knees and a green party desperate to stay there……All that, however, seems irrelevant to the importance of the pub talk!! As this just occurred and was something I got passionately involved in, I can’t promise how well constructed this will be. I’ll try. Oh and I promise no cursing this time!
Basically it revolves around Andrei Agassi’s recent revelation in his autobiography and the shockingly unsubstantiated perceptions that apparently go along with it. For those of you not familiar with the story, Andrei Agassi recently admitted to doing Crystal Meth in 1997, while he was a professional tennis player. Agassi had previously burst onto the scene as an amazing talent and a huge character in the world of tennis. A brief ebb in his career circa 1997 was followed by an impressive comeback by a more professional, mature Agassi who went on to win all the majors in his career.
The point that was originally made was that he was stupid to reveal such a thing. It was then suggested that he had made enough money and had no need to say such things to sell more copies of said autobiography. I was already aghast. Surely, his objective in writing his autobiography was obviously to make money but also to tell his story. After all, he is refreshingly someone writing his autobiography well AFTER the end of his career unlike many other sports people these days. (Gavin Hastings comes to mind!). Surely this is his opportunity to tell it like it was, give us all an insight into who is Andrei Agassi and what trials and tribulations did he go through, not only as a tennis player but as a person. Kudos to him I said and that I personally wish there were more like him. Surely he shouldn’t be vilified for admitting such a thing anyway!? He didn’t exactly come out and encourage it or big himself up for it!
It was around this time that things got a little hairy. I still can’t figure out if I was being wound up or if this is actually what people think. Not just people, friends of mine, intelligent people, I thought even tolerant people who could think for themselves and establish their own point of view. Basically, it was suggested that Agassi’s “career (as a tennis player)” was called into question because he admitted to trying Crystal Meth. I cannot even begin to explain how difficult it is to think coherently and slow this all down for you. First of all, people’s personal life should not have that much of a bearing on their professional life. Now please don’t misunderstand, one’s personal life can (and does) impinge on one’s professional performance. It even did in Agassi’s case. What I mean is that in one’s professional life, one should be judged on how they perform. To weigh every success someone has against previous failures, mistakes or errors of judgment is to make life impossible. If most of you reading this divulged to a possible future employer how you behaved and what you got up to in college, you quite frankly wouldn’t get a job!
It was then put to me that his whole career was called into question because by admitting that he tried Crystal Meth, it was then more likely that he was also on performance enhancing drugs………WHHHHATT?? On what planet does that hold any weight? To make matters worse, this was more than one person’s opinion! And, now we come to the crux of the matter. Apparently it is a moral thing! This is the part that irked me so and has me all riled up. How can cheating by taking performance enhancing drugs be compared to almost de-railing your career by taking an altogether non performance enhancing, recreational drug? The obvious similarity is drugs but the moral issues involved are very, very different. If anything I believe Agassi showed himself to be morally courageous for telling the truth.
Despite the fact that I pretty much knew where the whole fruitless argument was going I had to ask, what was morally reprehensible about admitting to doing Crystal Meth and how could it in anyway suggest someone was more likely to take performance enhancing drugs? The answer I got, quite predictably, to both questions was that they were both illegal. First of all, I would like to point out that many banned substances for sports people aren’t actually illegal. They are banned in sports because they are performance enhancing. For God sake, caffeine and ephedrine are far from illegal drugs but are banned substances in sports people. Secondly, and my main point, is that just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it’s immoral. Surely everyone can agree on that? There is obviously some correlation between morality and law (rape, stealing, murder…), but to suggest that something is immoral because it is illegal is just plain wrong.
Morals are a set of standards that we live by. Everyone has, or should have their own moral compass, their own set of standards, their own belief in what is right and wrong. It is the basics of being a fully functional member of society. But the simple fact is that you shouldn’t be told your morals. Rape is wrong because it is a vulgar act and takes away someone else’s free will and hurts somebody else. Murder is wrong. Stealing is wrong. To suggest, that somebody choosing, of their own free will and not impinging on anyone else’s life, to sample drugs because they are illegal is morally reprehensible is just ridiculous. I cannot see how that works. Laws should not tell anyone what is moral because then it is not by definition their own set of morals – it is somebody else’s. Nor should somebody breaking one law suggest that you are immoral and likely to break others on a whim. Some laws are to be taken seriously, some aren’t. Jay walking is not immoral. Drinking a pint at the age of 16 is not immoral. Smoking a joint is not immoral. Why? Because even if they are illegal, they do not make you a bad person. They won’t make you a bad accountant, solicitor or doctor. Just like, no matter how wrong it was, trying Crystal Meth does not take away from your achievements years later as a professional tennes player. FACT!
