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erniet's avatar

I used to follow Wimbledon religiously in the days of Connors and McEnroe, and into the Bjorn Borg era (it seemed he could never lose on grass). Even in to the era of Federer, though I think once Djokovic kind of became THE guy I sort of drifted away from tennis and all sport in general.

It's interesting that sport remains the one place where a true meritocracy exists; the scoreboard, as it were, does not lie. And individual sports like tennis, or boxing, or weight lifting, or even golf are the purest form of meritocracy. You're either good enough, or your not, and there's no hiding your lack of ability behind that of a teammate.

This idea of that true meritocracy is the promise of the Enlightenment-influenced liberal order. Some have great talent and squander it; some over-achieve through hard work and effort. Everyone has a shot at success (hey, no good at tennis? Try golf, or wrestling, or a host of other endeavors).

The point is you have to try. It seems these days the idea of having to try has fallen into disfavor, maybe? And then there's the people who argue that it's a rigged game, and not everybody gets a fair shot at success...which is true to some extent, but you can't punish those who succeeded in the arena just because some were excluded from competing...you have to fix how people get in the arena in the first place.

I dunno, there's a lot in this article to think about.

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Louis Pastrami's avatar

Probably because I'm a geriatric (but not yet completely demented despite the relentless efforts of our so-called government to blame us pensioners for all the ills of the world as they thrash us into paying more tax to sustain the ahem so-called migrant victims), I still remember what I always think about when I think about tennis and Wimbledon. That's the 1980 match between John Youcannotbrserious McEnroe and that German chap who ended up in jail for - I'm not sure exactly what it was, now, because of my aforementioned geriatric status - hmm embezzlement? Bank robbery? Serial adultery?

Oh how I wish it was still 1980. No Internet, no skunk crazed homeless people with or without machetes, no pro hamas chanting cretins, no forcefeeding of enumbers in fake food, no deep fake, no dark web, no Pakistani raping gangs.

If there is a Hod, please will he beam me back now...

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