morality and ultimate

So, I often try to use rsd as a bully pulpit. I prefer that the game be played cleanly and want to do what I can to make it so. But I also know that I've been a part of a few fiascos in the past and that some of my teammates through the years have not always played the cleanest games (at least using my interpretation), so maybe I should hold my tongue a little more.

But this NUA stuff (well, not the NUA stuff itself, but rather the ventings from the disgruntled organizers after the elite players blew them off) makes me upset. They are advocating that the standard way to play is to foul strategically, that "everyone does it" and you're a fool if you don't, and that it's ok until there are refs.

I don't advocate playing in such a way that you will never commit a foul, much like I wouldn't advocate driving exactly at the speed limit. But each attempt has to be legit, and there can't be so many "legit" offenses that it becomes a pattern.

I'd like to expound on the speeding analogy a little more. There is a legal view, a moral view, and an economic view. The legal view is that it's neither wrong nor right to speed, and it only matters if it's called. The first-order moral view is that "excessive speeding" is dangerous and that the law is written as a reference point. Who would not be pissed off for being pulled over on an open highway for doing 56 in a 55? (Higher-order moral discussions would cover whether it's moral to break a rule you don't agree with to the letter.) The economic view is that you calculate the likelihood of being pulled over at different speeds, consider the costs and benefits of it, and also factor in the morality (is it ok to drive really fast if there is no way you'd get caught?).

I think that you should play the game the moral way, and call it the economic way. (I suppose that if you are going against a known miscreant who lives up to his reputation, you can be a little more "legal" in your calls.) If someone wants to play it or call it the legal way, well, they have the law on their side, but that's not someone I want to be around, either with or against.

I've changed the settings to allow anonymous comments so you can call me a hypocrite without fear of reprisal. And this will also allow elite players to say, "Hate to tell you this, but my (anonymous) team does indeed play this way, and the captains preach it."

Tomorrow: a history of my view of refs and self-officiating