MovieChat Forums > Bigger Stronger Faster* (2008) Discussion > To Quote George Carlin

To Quote George Carlin

posted 15 years ago by allrealityisvirtual
16 replies | jump to latest

It annoys me when people complain about athletes taking steroids to improve athletic performance. It’s a phony argument, because over the years every single piece of sports equipment used by athletes has been improved many times over. Golf balls and clubs; tennis balls, racquets; baseball gloves and bats; football pads and helmets and so on through every sport. Each time technology has found a way to improve equipment it has done so. So why shouldn’t a person treat his body the same way? In the context of sports, the body is nothing more than one more piece of equipment, anyway. So why not improve it with new technology? Athletes use weights, why shouldn’t they use chemicals?

Consider the Greek Phidippides, a professional runner who, in 490 B.C., ran from Athens to Sparta and back (280 miles) to ask the Spartans for help against the Persians in an upcoming battle that threatened Athens. Don’t you think his generals would have been happy to give him amphetamines if they had been available? And a nice pair of New Balance high-performance running shoes while they were at it? Grow up, purists. The body is not a sacred vessel, it’s a tool

[–] jnatch 15 years ago

A. because of the effects on the person
B. because it has to be done on the sneak and makes an unfair playing field

If george said this it is one of the few things Ive disagreed with him on

also dont tell people to grow up, makes you sound like an arse-ole

[–] AtlasShrugging 15 years ago

If steroids are allowed on the field, then no one has an unfair advantage, because everyone will have access to the same performance enhancing drugs. Then, we will truly be able to see who is the best athlete, because we will still see differences in size, strength, coordination and game IQ. Regardless of your opinion on that matter, the government should NOT make it their business to regulate who can and can not use performance enhancing drugs.

[–] sprtby92 15 years ago

Not everyone wants to take steroids, for both moral and health related issues.

[–] CountYourblessings 15 years ago

Alright. In that case they may substitute HGH.

[–] firdaus125 15 years ago

Steroids are a tough issue, on one hand I'm all for them but on the other, I know for myself that I wouldn't like to take them and if I really love playing a sport I would be really depressed if everyone else took them, knowing the I would not have a level playing field.

[–] jan1080 15 years ago

I don't see the problem here.

If steroids and all kinds of performance-enhancing drugs were legalized, how hard would it be to create one "natural" competition (in which all drugs and chemically enhancing effects are banned) and one "do wtf you want" competition?

I mean, bodybuilding has already done this. If you don't want to use steroids, join a natural bodybuilding competition organization. If you do want to use steroids etc, you do regular bodybuilding.
And it works like a charm!

I really don't see the problem in doing this with the entire Olympics and all World Championships. If you discover a myostatin-mutation: Not allowed in the "natural" competition. If testosterone levels are considerably higher than average: Not allowed. If you've got 500mg of caffeine in your blood: Not allowed. You'll get to join the "do wtf you want" organization and compete there though.

That way everybody would be happy, and everyone could do wtf they wanted to.

[–] Miarse 15 years ago

And of course everybody would have access to the same drugs and stimulants, and the USA wouldn't develop new and better hormonal products etc and keep the rest of the world from having any...

[–] gfarrell80 7 years ago

If steroids and all kinds of performance-enhancing drugs were legalized, how hard would it be to create one "natural" competition (in which all drugs and chemically enhancing effects are banned) and one "do wtf you want" competition?

I mean, bodybuilding has already done this. If you don't want to use steroids, join a natural bodybuilding competition organization. If you do want to use steroids etc, you do regular bodybuilding.
And it works like a charm!

In the kind of capitalist society we live in there is not room for both a 'natural' and 'drug enhanced' professional sports league.

People who might be good enough to compete at a high level and make a living professionally but do not wish to put hormones into their body; or those that are economically excluded without access to the drugs would not be able to compete.

Not much in life is really fair though. Most professional athletes are already extremely gifted genetically.

It is completely possible for sports to serve their social purpose and entertain us without making our athletes put these things into their bodies. I would say the side effect of widespread body dismorphia among normal young males looking at these oversized athletes and body builders is possibly even a bigger issue than potential side effects.

[–] schwatime 15 years ago

If steroids are allowed on the field, then no one has an unfair advantage, because everyone will have access to the same performance enhancing drugs.

(a) Everyone who can afford them. Remember in the doc when Mad Dog was asking his dad for money for the drugs? And do you really think that all steroids will be priced the same, so that poor kids are going to be able to buy ones as effective as the rich kids can afford?
(b) Everyone who is willing to take the extra risks, including those we may not know about for decades.

My problem with steroids isn't with the use of the drugs themselves. It's with the fact that, if you want to compete in a sport that has a lot of steroid usage, you're faced with two choices:
(1) Using them yourself.
(2) Getting out.

Then, we will truly be able to see who is the best athlete, because we will still see differences in size, strength, coordination and game IQ.

Except that then skill at using steroids to maximum effect is thrown into the mix as well.

[–] Miarse 15 years ago

If steroids are allowed on the field, then no one has an unfair advantage, because everyone will have access to the same performance enhancing drugs.

Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever read on the IMDB.

So then, seeing as, lets say LZR Racer swimsuits are legal and can be purchased, does that mean everyone will have/wear one?

That's the sort of mediocre thinking one would expect from a Ayn Rand reader.

[–] spamthis091 15 years ago

I think you duped his R-tarded comment with your own spicy-flavor.
Lets go to your example of everyone having LZR racer swimsuits say they are legal and available to be purchased. WHAT THE FRIK does it matter whether everyone or anyone has the suit? Really listen to yourself, and try to overcome this with some more spicy-logic. Are you then implying that if one person or say no one except one person in the water has a suit it is in some way an unfair competition? Prove me wrong because I don't think it is, and I will tell you why with included the fortune cookie at the end. It is a matter of choice what a person does/doesn't involve himself with 'CHOICE' determining factor. There is no obligation within the consideration of logic that because one person decides its 'not-fair' to use or participate in enhancing the human body or the equipment used to increase effectiveness, to progress that in some way that it 'should' be binding and considered incontestable to the other players/competitors participating. And the fortune cookie says 'swallow, digest, take a *beep* thats life'

[–] Miarse 15 years ago

Are you then implying that if one person or say no one except one person in the water has a suit it is in some way an unfair competition?

No, I'm saying that just because something may be available and legal, or pronounced usable within the remit of sport, that doesn't equate with equal access to it, or to it's advantages.

Did you miss the whole thrust of my post? I think you did.

[–] william_nealy 15 years ago

I am pretty sure the OP was quoting George Carlin, right? It's probably OK for GC to tell folks to grow up - it was his job. Miss the guy.

[–] allrealityisvirtual 15 years ago

yeah! what that guy said

maybe i needed quotes or that centred paragraph thing

a free-for-all division would be one hell of a spectator sport - especially with nanotechnology just around the corner

bring on the pill-poppin' cyborg olympics!

[–] Campbell_Hates_Movies 14 years ago

Actually, guy, Phidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to inform the Athenians that the Greeks had beaten back the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, and it was 26.2 miles, not 280. That's where we get the the distance and title of marathons run today.
Also, he collapsed and died of exhaustion on the spot, so I think a 280 miles run might have been a bit over his head. It's over anyone's head. Except Forrest Gump.

[–] millsyooksy 8 years ago

I totally agree.