Bonds and The American Dream

A record is a mathematical construct. One either hits more home runs than anybody else or does not. The home run record is not the Holy Grail. An unworthy will not crumble into dust if he touches it. Deserve doesn't factor into it. Deserve simply doesn't exist.

Is Barry Bonds a cheater? Probably, and he is likely to die the same miserable death of any steroids user or alcoholic. Laying a claim to the title of best baseball player ever is more important to him than his own survival. Fine. We all need something that's more important to us than living as long as possible, otherwise we would go mad. Barry Bonds is a grown man who has made his choice, temporary physical superiority over any sort of positive legacy. This is an unwise choice, but not uncommon, and it is his choice.

For those who think that celebrities exist "for the children," worry not. Those children who are sad enough to get their moral lessons from athletes are learning life's most important fact. There is no connection between moral character and material success. Barry Bonds has become more subversive than Ginsberg without even trying; an anti-Alger destroying the fantasy-land of sluttish welfare mothers sucking the blood out of chaste productive citizens with every swing. What this country needs are a dozen more Barry Bonds'; lying and cheating their way to the top in one high-profile profession or another. Perhaps then we can finally delivered from this damnable American Dream that creates nothing but scapegoats, servility, and self-loathing.