Would you be proud to “win first place” by cheating?
I had the weird experience of paddling on a dragon boat team last weekend. In the first race we used our own team members and came in 3rd. In the second race we took out four members of our team and replaced them with more powerful paddlers from two other teams who weren’t in our class and came in 2nd by a fraction of a second. In the final we took out an additional paddler and replaced him with another ringer and we barely got first place.
I haven’t read the rule book on this practice but it is clearly not authorized because each team had to wear specific I.D. bracelets. But we simply just switched bracelets to try to fool the officials. And it worked.
The bizarre thing is that other members of my team are so proud of their first place “victory”. I only got to paddle twice and they gave me a medal. I accepted it only to not make a big deal about it. I also feel embarrassed to have participated in this fiasco and can’t bear to even look at the medal. Am I crazy to feel this way? What do you think?
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No, I wouldn’t be. I remember wondering about the same issue in school, when students who had cheated proudly presented their As.
No. And there is nothing wrong with you!
Of course.
I defer to the infallible Ferengi Rules of Acquisition:
#52 Never ask when you can take.
#68 Risk doesn’t always equal reward.
#98 Every man has his price.
#109 Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.
#181 Not even dishonesty can tarnish the shine of profit.
#239 Never be afraid to mislabel a product
#261 A wealthy man can afford anything except a conscience.
#266 When in doubt, lie.
#284 Deep down, everyone’s a Ferengi.
No. As a matter of fact, one of the great joys of my life is beating people who are cheating, while I play fairly.
Thanks for the responses. I feel better now.
@ragingloli Good points. I was thinking about painting the metal black to signify: the dark side of sports; the dark side of dragon boating; the dark side of people. I could hang it in my closet for all my skeletons to admire. HA!
If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.
No I wouldn’t @gondwanalon. Sorry you went through that. Did you put a lot of effort into training beforehand? I guess you know not to go with that team again in future.
No, you are not crazy. If you feel you can, you should contact the race officials and let them know. It is nuts that the other team members are proud of “winning.”
@Earthbound_Misfit I’ve been training hard this last Fall and Winter here in Tacoma,WA even in freezing temps, rain and darkness.
@marinelife I’m not going to contact the race organizers but I did send a review of what I saw to the team captain and who I felt about it yesterday. I don’t expect a reply.
That’s so frustrating for you. I hope you can find a more ethical team for next time.
Honestly, cheating is cheating, there is no good or bad way, or right or wrong way to cheat, it doesn’t matter how you did it, it stays cheating. The fact that you feel the way you do shows the type of person you are and it says a lot about your character and values. Don’t feel bad for the way you feel, what happened was wrong, point. And the fact that you can see that, will mean great things for you to come still as you will live life to the degree where you WILL only sow the benefits.
And yes, you should be proud of your victory.
You may not have won through physical ability, but you have won through guile and ingenuity, beating a system that was set up against you.
That wasn’t “guile and ingenuity” @ragingloli. It was cheating. Anyone can cheat. Anyone.
Rules are made to be creatively interpreted.
And it takes a lack of moral compass to actually do it.
morals are for communists
Well I really don’t understand the lat few comments. Anyway…
I’m no expert in the sport of dragon boat racing. I’ve only been at it for a few months. I do it just to please my wife who loves it. Fundamentally it’s a team sport (mostly women participate) where form, technique, strength and timing are crucial for a fast time. If that isn’t enough to win then the team captain may utilize cheating otherwise known as strategy, scheming and shrewdness.
It really is a weird sport in which otherwise normal people seem to go more than a little bit crazy with over the top screaming, singing, dancing, boozing and BS’ing. Perhaps the word camp best describes it.
It’s not for me. But in the future I’ll just go with it.
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