<p>I’ve posted from time to time that things remind me (in a bad way) of my experience in Little League. I thought I’d elaborate.</p>
<p>First, I coached about 10 teams over the years of kids ages 8 to 18, of all ability levels - from “not-sure-which-base-to-run-to” to some high school aged players who are currently starters in Div. 1 college ball. And I loved every minute of the time I spent with the kids on the field. But the fields don’t mow themselves, the game schedules don’t arrange themselves, umpires don’t show up unasked, etc,. It takes more volunteer hours than you can imagine to get the thousands of games I was responsible for played. So I spent a lot of time on a League Board, including a stint as president and chief flak-catcher. And over the years I saw more BS parading as “principle” than I could ever forget. And I observed some patterns and learned some truths about human behavior. </p>
<p>1) Good People will do bad things if they can justify it as serving a noble goal.
2) Good People will act in self-serving ways as to which they don’t want to admit their actual motives - sometimes even to themselves.
3) When a Good Person is motivated to do something bad and/or self serving, they are highly motivated to recast the reason they are doing it as being based on some laudable abstract principle or noble cause, instead of their actual selfish motivation.<br>
3) Anything that’s “for the children” is a noble cause.<br>
5) When Good People do self-serving or bad things under the cloak of a noble purpose, they are impelled to exaggerate and distort reality to reinforce the cloak of an abstract principle at issue and direct attention away from their true motives - again, not necessarily consciously.</p>
<p>How does this pan out in real life? Well, let’s say Johnny’s dad wants to coach the “prestige” team that year. His competition is a long time league coach - Bob - whose own children have grown up. Gossip will start to circulate about the importance of the “bond” between fathers and sons in sports. Dark mutterings will crop up about sexual deviates - why does Bob want to hang around little kids, anyway? Has the league really done a good background check? Hey, legitimate questions, right? All asked for the benefit of “the children”, right? But its not really about That. It’s about John Sr. beating out Bob. </p>
<p>Does Mary want her older son to play on the “cool” team but is worried that better but younger players will get chosen instead? Prepare for a debate about the importance of peer group bonding, appropriate social development, etc. which mandates forming teams by age, not skill. (Or the opposite argument from the dad of a skilled younger player.) Again, legitimate subjects, but not really the point. Prepare to be accused of not caring about “the children” if you disagree - even though it’s really not about them at all. I heard the damndest theories spun about lofty ideals - which always seemed to end up with the source (or the source’s best friend) obtaining some inconceivably trivial advantage. I’ve seen grown men hatch bizarre plots over what spot their kid was in the batting order. I’ve heard vicious rumors circulated about kids who competed with little Johhnie for preference at a given position. When a few innings of a game between 10 year olds had to be played over because one of the coaches messed up his batting order (with, predictably, the result that his best hitter - a girl - batted four times for the other players’ two) the do-over somehow offended the United States Constitution - and lawsuits were threatened - on principle, of course. I’m not kidding. In an older age group a high school coach at a nearby school was fired after a huge uproar sparked by a group which circulated anonymous letters accusing him of all kinds of things - including things I personally knew to be untrue (because I was the person they would have been reported to if they’d happened.) The real problem? The son of one couple who was a legitimate third string player was told that he was - third string at his position. But that was never mentioned, even once. It’s not just Little League - it happens in every arena of modern life, from schools to neighborhood issues to the workplace. But Little League is where I learned the lesson.</p>
<p>And the lesson I learned is that Good People can do bad and/or self serving things, and will, if they can cloak their concerns in the guise of an issue which is based on a noble principle divorced from their personal interests. And I’m not being sarcastic or ironic when I refer to the “Good People.” Many of these folks were friends of mine; almost all of them were legitimately honest, upright citizens - bona fide “Good People.” But somehow when they’re able to convince themselves that it’s not about their personal interests (which just happen to coincide with the proper application of the Noble Cause) they justify to themselves conduct that I honestly think they would never indulge in if they fairly and honestly assessed their own motivations.</p>
<p>So when I see people distorting and exaggerating events to make them appear to fit the mold of a noble cause, I’m inclined to look to see how they are likely to benefit (or how is someone they dislike likely to suffer) from the battle over that principle. Because likely as not, while there will be some factual basis which, if distorted and exaggerated enough, will provide a fig leaf of justification for the struggle, it’s really Not About That. And when that’s the case arguing about That is often a mistake, because when backed into a corner, the Good People will redouble their cloaking efforts. So if you disagree, you are now “against the children” or “for premarital sex” or whatever. And you can never effectively counter that accusation, since “it” really isn’t actually “about” the cloaking noble cause you’re now accused of being against.</p>
<p>That’s what I learned from Little League.</p>
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