Friday, December 18, 2009

Judging Tiger Woods

I have read many a comment in different places that condemns Tiger Woods for his escapades with various women. Sure, looking at the results, his behavior was clearly a mistake. But there is a big trap for onlookers: It is the implicit assumption, "If I were the Tiger, I would not be so stupid as to have fooled around with those women because I am on a higher plane morally." It is a claim that you, with your experiences, would have acted differently. It assumes that had you found yourself in the same situation you would have been able to resist the temptations he yielded to.

You cannot justify making this assumption--chances are that given your life and background you would not have gotten Tiger Woods' success and fame, not just because you were not as gifted, but simply because you are you as a result of your own very different personal history and nature. This being so, it would not ever be possible for you to experience the same reality. Why? The content of any reality is determined by the nature of the individual and the situation s/he faces. If either of these two components is different, another person's reality is not the same as yours. This being so, it is wrong to assume a moral superiority allowing you to judge the star who has fallen from grace.

1 comment:

Harmon said...

I agree totally. I am more disappointed than anything else. I tried to watch golf while he was on the sidelines with his knee injury, but for the most part he is most of golf for me. The interesting thing about the processes of others is that if we can listen well, we might learn the wisdom of their karma and not have to take it on the jaw ourselves. Like accelerated evolution. Finally what we do have in common is our humanity. One organism.