If the majority of people are cheating at something all at the same time, does that make cheating acceptable?

Question

(for example, Barry Bonds)

Answer 1

Cheating has become acceptable in a wide array of venues. Thank goodness just not with me....a cheat is a cheat...steroid abuse goes back (probably further) but first, most notably with the Soviet Weightlifters in 1954...it hasn't slowed down since.

Still doesn't make it right.

Answer 2

You ask two questions here.

First question, let us suppose Bonds excused his usage of steroids under the reasoning that everybody does it. The argument does not excuse him in my view. He is not paid to play baseball as such. The public pays to watch an athletic competition, a significant difference here. People who love baseball like to see not only the professionals at play, but also kids at play, or even amateurs. They tend to see professional baseball as "there we go if we had been born with better muscles, if we had better training and practice, playing a game where we do not have to adapt to our small budget." It is for these reason people look up to the athletes, why they get those lucrative endorsement deals outside baseball. Introduce steroids and the admiration becomes "there we go if somebody had recommended the proper chemical." Such athletes would not be admired in the same way. I guess the games would go on with a much reduced fan base.

The second answer, a philosophical answer, is simpler. Suppose everybody said "I will not work from now on, but I will steal from the next guy." Society would collapse in time. It takes work to produce food, to keep a roof over your head. Since nobody works, society would last only as long as the food already produced.

Some people confuse "good, because it is acceptable in society," with "good, because it is objectively profitable and improves my situation not at the expense of others." Most of the time, there is no difference between those two. The difference is significant to your question.

Ignorant people believe that all it takes for baseball success is muscle. I would say it is necessary but not sufficient. There is talk about the effort and dedication it takes to keep in shape, about how the sport is a mental game. Little tricks of the trade take quite the effort to acquire. The capacity and willingness to learn, is what we admire no matter the form. That is why we would not admire athletes who used steroids, there is no effort involved in their success.

Further, Bonds broke a record for most home runs. Consequently, he had the admiration of society, lucrative contracts and endorsements. Still, there is somebody out there, who broke the record without using steroids, who really kept athletic discipline, who learned all the tricks of the trade, who paid a price others were not willing to pay. All the glory and benefits Bond obtained really belong to this unknown person. In a real sense, Bonds stole from this unknown person. .

Answer 3

Considering that the concept of right and wrong (morality) is a social construct, I guess your point is valid. The mass action gives legitimacy to cheating. I'll give you a very concrete example.

Vote buying during elections is very rampant in the Philippines. There is a give and take relationship between the politicians and the mass of voters who are willing to sell their votes. Every candidate (from national to barangay elections) shell out millions of pesos to buy every vote available. The act is so entrenched in the election culture that candidates and their goons (in some areas) do not even have the shame to hide it. The voters on the other hand simply wait in the streets for the ones handing out money and they don't even see that it is wrong.

But mister, legitimacy of cheating does not always make it right.

And as I would always say, in this distressed times, it is important that we know what is valuable to us. We could never change the world unless we can only change ourselves.

Answer 4

I'm not sure I agree with that statement and remember there is a consequence to everything we do so if someone wants to pay the high price of consequence (Barry Bonds) then that is up to the individual I guess.

Answer 5

I don't understand what do you mean by 'cheating' and 'acceptable'.
Even if whole of the humanity accepts 'cheating' as desired virtue, cheating will remain cheating only, nothing else.
If you enter in a piggery all alone, will you start copulating with swine? No. And there you are.

Answer 6

NO! Cheating is not acceptable.
If the majority of people are abusing others, does that make abuse acceptable? NO!
If the majority of people are killing others, does that make murder acceptable?NO!

Answer 7

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself."
In this age of gender equality, we should also include the fairer gender, and rephrase this quote as "It is impossible for a person to be cheated by anyone but one's own self..." !
...When persons act, in the belief that that they are benefiting by cheating others, I find that they are only cheating their own selves - by degrading their self-respect.

Answer 8

what kind of world were living in, thats why i cant wait to see my father

Answer 9

uh... no! that just means that more people get in trouble for it.