Comment; Social Change

Here is a comment left for my posting directly below (from Anonymous, I believe in Washington State):

I think you have a good point about personal responsibility and people having to be held to account for thier actions.

Minor point: Colwell said it was PARTICULARLY hard for people from different class backgrounds to understand what might motivate the behavior. Not that people from lower class backgrounds will not also see it as bad behavior.

Also I don't think Goldberg was saying anything different than what you conclude. That atheletes get pumped up with a sense of themselves as 'gods'. i.e. given a sense of entitlement. The question is "where does that sense come from, if not from an adoring public that has it's sense of what is praisworthy askew." Where a person who can pass a football can earn tens of millions a year while a good kindergarden teacher can barely pay the electric bill.

July 29, 2007 10:06 AM

Anonymous made some good points, especially his/her "Minor Point."

So, as I posted earlier, if indeed "Society as a whole may be responsible for the perpetuation of ugly and abusive behaviors, but we are not responsible for individuals making the choice to engage in those activities," then where do we go from here? What actions do we take as a society? With all the uproar caused by these most recent events, we've certainly indicated that we are fast becoming a society that believes we can affect social change. Will we affect social change? Would that change be solely athlete-/sport-/animal welfare-specific? Or is this just the beginning of positive change?