Pump You Up!

Feel the burn...


I was watching some old Government films from the 1940s last week. I downloaded them from the Internet. You won't find these on any other media outlet like cable television or Blockbuster. No one watches them and quite frankly, no one wants you to. They show an America that doesn't exist anymore and it also shows things that they don't want you to know ever existed. The races were segregated, the government was all controlling and there wasn't any poverty or descent. It was a perfect world...on the surface. (See my other thoughts on our changing past in the blog Revisionist History.)

One of these short films celebrated the 1940 4th of July. It splashed a graphic across the screen to the sound of John Phillip Sousa.

Enjoy America, Land of the Free, Home of "Fair Play".

It sort of dawned on me, that "Home of the Brave" probably didn't come into vogue until after we whupped some ass in World War II. But it also sank in that this really wasn't the land of 'Fair Play' anymore.

While we still preach this ethic to our children and discuss it at cocktail parties, the truth is, no one plays fair anymore. You are considered a moron if you do. We preach safe sex and abstinence but the number of on-line prostitutes and clergymen groping little boys isn't diminishing. We continue to endorse the concept of American democracy, but even Republicans will tell you that George Bush 'bought' the White House, twice. (Read more of my ranting on this in the blog Don't Vote.)

Over the past few months we have been hit with this 1...2...3 punch of steroid / doping scandals. Barry Bonds is about to break the all time home run record in baseball, but should it really count? The Tour de France has seen leader after leader stripped of the Yellow Jersey and thrown off the tour for doping. Where I live there is a 'Federal' investigation of whether or not local Police and Firemen have been using illegal steroids. A pro-Wrestler (is there really such a thing?) goes into a psychotic rage after taking 5 times the recommended steroid dosage for over 6 months and murders his family over the weekend.

We still mouth the words that these people are 'cheating' and that this is a shameful thing to do.

Hold on a minute.

Is it?

In this society winning is everything. Sports, Business, Politics....are things we win at. We don't even give the losers a footnote. I can't even recall the name of the last person that lost the governors race in this state.

When you played baseball in the 1930s, it was for the love of the game and the fact that you could make a 'living' at it instead of working. You didn't have to grow up, you could be a kid until you were 30. Now, the 30 year olds are making over $50 million dollars a year. That is a bit more of a living than most of us make.

If the difference between being a minor league player who makes $35,000 a year and a Major League player that makes $135,000 a years is a needle with some testosterone in it, wouldn't you do it? Or would you settle for letting your kids go to public school and drive a beat up Volkswagen, instead of the Lexus?

If I call the police because there are three drunken transients sleeping in my back yard, I don't want Police Officer Limpet showing up in a squad car. I want the Incredible Hulk showing up with his buddies The Thing and Spiderman.

If I could pay $1500 for a pill that guaranteed me a 27% pay raise within the next year, would I be whipping out my credit card?

"Wait", the angel on my right shoulder is telling me the pill is illegal!

"After you swallow it, who is going to know?" says the little devil on my left shoulder.

Here, you take Visa, right?

Whether surviving in your job or excelling in your job performance, we are all looking for any edge we can get. Training and hard work is only going to get you so far.

I learned this in college. During my freshman year, I went out for the crew (rowing) team and made it. I worked out three times a day, ate right, ran 5 miles to the docks and back for practice. But regardless of how hard I worked out, there were other guys on the team that seldom worked out and had muscle mass twice mine. They didn't take steroids (we didn't have them back in the 70s). They were just luckier genetically. They were always going to be stronger or quicker than me. It was the luck of the draw. If I were going up against my old crew-mates in the real world, I know I could never beat them.....but with the little golden syringe I might stand a chance.

This is what any cop is going to think while driving through gang-land. That is what every second string corner-back thinks while trying to stay on the squad. The pressures on our society have made this a reality. Anything to get a head is acceptable. Playing fair and loosing, is just loosing. There really isn't any 'love of the game' anymore.

We have turned a corner in our evolution and are no longer willing to let nature make the decisions. The luck of the draw only gets you so far, best to have an ace up your sleeve. Or better yet....12 aces.

In our future, the young people of today will have a new concept of self worth and success. Breasts not big enough? get them enlarged! To fat?, gastric bypass! Not strong enough?, take this drug! Not smart enough....smoke this! Can't keep it up....try this little blue pill! Want to father a son instead of a daughter, rub this on your skin!....you want your boy to have blue eyes?, that will be another $100!!! (I have first hand knowledge of this, read my blog Scenes from a Marriage - Part 2 to find out why.)

Steroids, body enhancement, the human genome project, stem cell research, hair implants, botox, they are already here. The government might try and regulate them on 'moral' grounds, but that just means the research will be pushed off shore, where monetary gain has more sway than religious dogma.

Think of the ramifications. If you can choose the sex of your child, how many daughters will be born in India and China where women are considered second class citizens? If your enemy is twice as fast and twice as strong as your army, wouldn't you slip some human growth hormone into your troops k-rations? If a better figure, gets the handsome rich husband, isn't it a good investment?

We have moved past Darwin and Natural Selection. We are charting our own evolution into the future, without a compass. The coming master race won't be bred by the government. It will be created by those that have the money and the will to afford it. Barry Bonds isn't the cheater of the century, he is one of the pioneers of the new genetic age.