Socialism on campus

9-18-89

Perspective:

Socialism on campus

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports, at least on the surface. The Cobber football team got another win.

And several other Cobber teams showed definite improvement.

But, while these seemingly innocent games were going on, an insidious way of thought was being spread by Cobber coaches. Concordia's dirty little secret can no longer be kept hidden. Nearly all the Cobber coaches are raving socialists.

Yes, it's tragic. Just when Eastern Europe is unraveling and we thought we could sit back and congratulate ourselves on capitalism's final triumph we must now address this internal threat. At a time when political debate should be confined to the really pressing questions (like the obvious anti-competitive effects of helping the handicapped and universal health insurance) these coaches are challenging long-settled issues as to how we should live and work together.

Sure, you probably know some of these coaches as innocent-seeming types. They've been careful to be seen at all the right places, teaching Sunday School, going to chapel, running for-profit camps in the summers. But beneath that veneer of innocence lies a cadre of committed revolutionaries bent on challenging the very foundations of life in the eighties.

It is, quite simply, a plot to undermine the individualism and materialism of our youth, values which the rest of us have worked long and hard to foster.

Of course, coaches are often praised, or at least defended, for the great universal values which they instill in their players. Practical lessons like courage, diligence, and hard work (values consistent with capitalism) are frequently cited as by-products, and perhaps the best products, of a positive experience in athletics. But these coaches don't stop there.

Once coaches have our young people in their clutches they start telling them that they have to be "cooperative" with each other and "sacrifice their personal interests for the good of the team." Personal rewards are denigrated. Even good old "look out for number one" is ridiculed as a concept detrimental to the "team." As in "masses."

You with me here? You see what's happening? There's more, ideas that go to the very heart of our modern social contract.

The coaches tell everybody to do their best. But at the end of the year the most talented people get no more reward than some slow lineman or some bench-warmer.

Each team member gets the same plaque and a pat on the back. Get real.

Where's the individual recognition and rewards? Where's the monetary incentive to get ahead? Players are expected to perform well just for the satisfaction of seeing the whole group do well? Even the cross-country runners are now being told to run in a "pack" rather than as individuals, just because it will help the "team" score better. Can you believe these guys? You see where that kind of thinking got Poland.

Fortunately this collectivist nonsense has not duped all the Concordia athletes. We still have plenty of red blooded Americans on campus who chose to quit rather than sacrifice their designer jeans for the drab conformity of a Cobber uniform. These independent spirits have the guts to face life alone, preserving their individuality, without the crutch of relying on others. You win on your own, you lose on your own.

You've worked hard to find the right set of designer jeans which set you apart from the crowd. Don't let them take all that away.

Coaches are always saying you should "find out what's inside you." Coaches don't realize that what's really important is how much money's in your pocket and how you look. It's obvious the coaches don't subscribe to our values. Look what they get paid and how they dress.

Even among players who have stayed on our teams there are signs of thriving individualism. We have some basketball players who still cherish the idea of competing with their teammates to be the leading scorer.

We have a few football players who know what position they want to play and heroically resist playing a less prestigious position even though the coach says it might help the "team." Adam Smith would be proud, young people pursuing their narrow self-interest and letting the market take care of the rest.

Concordia is a college which prides itself on unabashedly claiming to teach positive values. And clearly the whole college has not fallen victim to the Marxist analysis employed by our coaches.

Just the other day I was talking to one of our students.

She had recently come from a management class in which the teacher had stressed the virtue of instilling employees with loyalty to the employer as an institution and discouraging loyalty that is people-to-people oriented. The class also concluded that unions were bad.

It was comforting to hear that, at least somewhere on campus, sound values are still being taught.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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