[November 20, 2020] Several years ago, I wrote about core American values to set a baseline for my leadership blog (see links here, here, and here). Core values say a lot about who we are and where we are going. This is why I spend so much of my time today with our military veterans; they understand what America is about, and I love them.
Values are emphasized heavily in the U.S. military. Some stand out more than others, like honesty and integrity. Dishonesty, in all its forms, destroys trust and is not tolerated in our military. All social institutions are built upon the principle that trust is present; else, nothing can exist. That is why Americans hate cheating.
“I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.” – Sophocles, ancient Greek tragedians
When I was a buck Sergeant (yep, that was a long time ago), a small group of us NCOs played poker in our barracks. Simon, a young man from southern Louisiana and a Cajun, was one of my buddies from Basic Training days. Simon had a habit of cheating. We warned him. Partway through the game, we jumped him, tied him to a bunk bed, placed him and the bunk out in the middle of the Brigade parade field, and left him there to be discovered the following morning. Oh, he was pissed.
Over 100 years ago, in professional baseball, two teams went head-to-head for the world championship; the Chicago White Sox against the Cincinnati Reds. Eight members of the White Sox team were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate. Known as the Black Sox Scandal, it was the “greatest scandal in American sports history,” destroying millions of dedicated fans’ trust.
Americans hate cheating. We despise those who cheat, lie, and steal. Those traits are abhorred, and rightly so. My friend Simon could not understand that cheating in a simple card game made us angry at him; we could not trust such a soldier on the battlefield when our lives were on the line. The Black Sox scandal was a significant blow to the fundamental underpinnings of how baseball is conducted.
It should come as no surprise that cheating is hated in all corners of the world.
Hi Gen. Satterfield. Hope all is well with you and your family. This is a right on target article that should be a must read. We all hate cheating but there are those who would encourage it. This is, IMHO, an indicator of societal decline.
AMERICANS HATE CHEATING. I wonder why? Gen. Satterfield points to the idea that cheating destroys trust and that it does. But it does much more. It makes us look like idiots and insults us, we lose respect among our peers, and we are seen as suckers. It means that we are too stupid to prevent cheating or to do something about it when it occurs.
Hi RED, great to have you back. As one of Gen. Satterfield’s major, hard-hitting guest writers, I hope to see more from you again. Oh, great comment.
The biggest news of today is the concerted effort to point out that the past Presidential election in the US involved massive, systemic cheating by the Democratic Party. Thank God the Republicans are standing up to it. In the past this cheating hasn’t made a serious difference but this time it did. It took a Trump massive victory and gave a narrow “victory” to Slow Joe Biden (is he still in the basement?).
Oh, don’t get me started. The media has most ignored this scandal. It may eventually be considered the greatest scandal in American history. I’m just sitting back with my popcorn to watch.
More than watching, we should all stand up and say that any outcome that favors those who cheat must be reviewed and the rules and protections changed to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
It should be noted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are on record as saying there was NO cheating. This is an obvious lie. The question is whether it made a difference. Looks like it did. 😒
We encourage cheating. How sad but how very true.
Good point, Janna. From what I’m seeing (and that is hard to see because of a coverup by the media) is that certain large Democratic cities had massive cheating from stuffing ballots to software manipulation.
“Americans hate cheating.” Great title of an article and in part explains why America has gotten so far when compared to nations in the rest of the world. Any nation’s citizens that abhor lying, cheating, and stealing will do much better than all others. Simple.
Hi Scotty, not so simple, IMHO. Yes, we do better but we also do not tolerate cheating. This means that those who cheat must be somehow punished. That serves, of course, many purposes. It sends a signal to others that this form of behavior is not tolerated. And, it says that your freedom will be taken from you for a period of time to think about what you did.
Excellent points, Gentlemen! I agree that Americans do hate cheating but others do also. Cheers!
Put this title on a banner and show it to evreyone.
I agree, the word needs to get out about cheating. Card cheats is just a symbol of what Gen. Satterfield is telling us here. The destruction of trust and confidence in our major institutions is on the rise because we chose to ignore cheating. Just watch out for how this plays out in the near future.
Thank you Gen. Satterfield for another excellent article and in particular for the stories.
I’m also a huge baseball fan and have been living in Chicago nearly all my life. The echoes of that Black Sox Sandal still is out there. We don’t like cheating but the political machine of Chicago is rife with cheating and there are not enough brave souls to resist.
You gotta start somewhere, so let it start with you. You will be that brave soul.
Go for it Randy. Be the one who starts the ball rolling in Chicago. I see that Chicago is where most of the corruption has existed since the early 1900s and the Black Sox Scandal is just one example of the corrupt culture of that city. The corruption has gotten more complex but it is still there.