National Pastimes, Steroids and Media Circuses
Last week congress was engaged in one of its favorite past times; grandstanding. A congressional panel heard testimony from current and former professional baseball players including Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. The biggest buzz-making item to come out of the testimony was Mark McGwire’s refusal to answer the question of whether or not he had taken steroids. His unwillingness to answer the question has fueled speculation that he was in fact taking steroids while chasing Maris’ home run record and his reputation has predictably suffered as a result.
Several observations can be drawn from the hearings that really illustrate the sort of illusory world that Americans live in today. To begin with, the whole circus sideshow was instigated by a book written by former slugger Jose Canseco. Canseco outs a number of player, including McGwire, as taking steroids when he was still in the game. Not surprisingly, Canseco has become the target of much condemnation from managers, owners and players alike, one of which is Curt Schilling.
Schilling has been an outspoken critic of steroids for a number of years; even implying in the past that steroid use in baseball is “rampant”. In last Thursday’s testimony Schilling called Canseco, whose book corroborates Schillings views on steroids, a liar. This is the conundrum that the issue of drugs creates in
The issue, in a broader sense, isn’t solely about steroids; it is about American’s acceptance of certain drugs and their opposition to others. It is a kind of built-in hypocrisy that seems to come with being an American. McGwire’s public conscience wrestling seemed to show a man who was not desirous of being a liar, while struggling with the knowledge that if he did tell the truth, he would be branded a cheat; a dilemma seemingly not shared by his contemporaries. However, the worst hypocrites in this spectacle are the shameless congress members pretending to be the protectors of old-fashioned American values while at the same time accepting enormous amounts of money from the pharmaceutical industry, an industry that shamelessly advertises their drugs even after many are known to be harmful to people’s health.
Americans are bombarded daily with advertisements from the pharmaceutical companies that encourage all manner of drugs to enhance their performance. You cannot watch television for more than ten minutes without being subjected to commercials hocking male sexual arousal pills, like Viagra and Cialis. Schools across the country have become defacto pharmacies dispensing drugs likes Ritalin and adderall to our nation’s children to enhance their concentration. Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac and Zoloft, just to name a few, are now household words. These are all drugs, we are told, that supposedly enhance the quality of our lives and all of these drugs have the full backing and support of the government and Congress especially.
The message that is being sent is clear, it is not only proper to ingest drugs to enhance performance but it is absolutely encouraged. However, when it comes to athletes using drugs to enhance their performance we are supposed to be incredulous that they would even entertain such an idea. What absurdity! Why on earth would anyone be shocked by the revelation that athletes use steroids? Drug use is ingrained in our culture, it is inescapable. We are the most medicated society on earth and yet we still feign outrage that athletes use steroids.
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