SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP CESA to offer training in Charleston

I find these kind of conversations to be incredibly fascinating...more for what isn't said than what is said. Since I don't know what is meant here, I thought I'd just write a short opinion piece...

I'm honestly not sure what "looking out for #1" means in terms of perceptions and opinions of people. However, if what is being discussed is the "selfish gene" kind of argument, where putting your children ahead of yourself is the ultimate act of "looking out for #1" because of your inherent desire to perpetuate your gene pool -- or the Ayn Rand kind of argument where altruism is simply a desire to gratify oneself rather than some type of "selfless impulse" -- then I agree -- especially CESA.

Why? Because CESA is run more like a business than a social network of parents. I can absolutely tell you as a founding board member of CESA that there was an incredible desire that the "social" soccer found at many clubs wasn't going to be indulged at CESA.

I've seen board member's children put on challenge and classic teams and leave the club. I've seen parents try to exert undue influence through gifts and effort and walk away in anger when they couldn't use that influence to get what they wanted for their child. I've seen coaches tell parents and players they'd be better off in another club when they talked about "keeping the team together" out of loyalty (to whom?) or for "social" reasons -- and these are coaches with every incentive to try to grow the number of kids in the club.

So -- thank goodness (from my perspective) -- especially CESA.

Or as I tell my kid every year since she began playing for GFC (pre-CESA) -- if you want to make the team, make sure you're the best player out there trying out for that team.

I agree that CESA is run like a business. And CESA does what is in CESA's best interests. Is that selfish? Smart business? Or both?

Sorry that my use of the word "especially" seemed to bother/offend you. But I thought it was relevant to the guys post. "Altruism" doesn't typically pop into my mind as behaviour associated with any big Club. Or business.

Your use of the term doesn't "bother", "offend", or even "please" me; I just didn't understand the mindset of the authors, i.e., the only term that sprang to mind was "ambiguous" -- thus the post.

Don't have a lot of time these days to post (hope this will change soon...I enjoy it quite a bit...) -- this set of posts touches upon some things I'm incredibly interested in, namely philosophy and sociology, so that's why I posted.

I leave you a couple of my favorite altruism quotes (and one or two I learned in making this post):

Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Ayn Rand

A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have unhappy people about one. H L Mencken

I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one. Aneurin Bevan

A race of altruists is necessarily a race of slaves. A race of free men is necessarily a race of egoists. Max Stirner

Altruism is selfishness out with a pair of field glasses and imagination. Christina Stead

Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts which simply do not make evolutionary sense. Richard Dawkins

I prefer.... "thou doth protest too much".

frabjous

thank God for google. your last one threw me!!!!