Machiavellian ideas in which the
end justifies the means seem to have invaded Australian sport.
The subsequent uproar about this
assault on what for many is the personification of life here has flooded the
media with detail about what has happened, what is happening and opinion of all
stripes.
Live crosses on television to
impromptu meetings involving top executives from most sporting codes, Federal
Government ministers, senior police officers and various expert commentators
suggest that life here is under threat.
Interestingly life in Australia is
under threat and although sport is not solely responsible, it contributes in
distracting us from the unfolding difficulties.
The Machiavellian concept that
puts achievement and success ahead of all else, irrespective of human cost, is
at work in other areas and living in thrall of profit we have long ignored
externalities.
Now, however, the accounts,
stamped with “Final warning” are tumbling in and a life in which the win at any
cost, of which the drugs in sport is just a small example, is unravelling.
The prevailing market mentality
has been beneficial, but now rather than engage in that somewhat
confrontational sphere we need to create a market of ideas about creating
community resilience and within that building avenues that lead to a different
way of living; different from what exists, but not necessarily worse.
A collision of circumstances
producing an outcome that makes the sports doping dynamic almost irrelevant is
of such sweeping importance that Australia, and the entire world, should be on
a war-like footing as it prepares for humanity’s most significant challenge.
Beyond occasional mention on
opinion pages, a few general stories and feature pieces examining the unfolding
dilemmas, rarely do we acknowledge the complexity, seriousness and urgency of
responding to what is happening.
The idea that the broader
community needs to be actively involved in working through these dilemmas – our
changing climate, energy shortages and a burgeoning population – appears
largely ignored and is restricted, mostly, to academic circles.
If ever we needed to embark on
that Machiavellian path, it is now.
“The end” is, however,
diametrically different from what exists and so demands remarkably different
“means”.
Our adversary is implacable and
its contempt for our arrogance and willingness to ignore the blatant indicators
of decline and disruption sees humanity effectively cornered and seeking solace
in unproven and yet to be developed things such as geo-engineering, or the
drawing of resources from, or escape to another planet.
Technology, the very thing that
has brought us to where we are, will play a role in alleviating what troubles
us, but it needs to be intimate, intricate and of a human scale.
Quite different, however, from the
dilemma presently bothering sport, effectively an unimportant distraction from
what truly matters.
