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I recently watched HBO’s new documentary “Bobby Fischer Against The World.” It’s an interesting but sad review of the anguished genius’s life.
Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) was clearly a prodigy, perhaps the greatest chess master in history, one who shot to worldwide fame at just 14 years of age when he became the youngest US champion in history. He played in 8 US Chess Championships in a row, winning them all. At 16 he published his first book becoming the youngest author in chess history.
At age 29 in 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland, Fischer reached his peak by playing Russia’s Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship. It was the Cold War: Russia versus the United States without fighting. The entire world watched a series of chess matches that Fischer came from behind to win spectacularly, sealing his fame forever.
If Fischer’s life had ended there it might have been to his good, but he lived to age 64, along the way by turns becoming a religious fanatic, conspiracy theorist, anti-American fugitive, and an anti-Semite. The last one was the most odd because Fischer was Jewish. After 9/11 he said the chickens had come home to roost for America and he later wrote a letter to Osama bin Laden claiming they had a lot in common against America.
Fischer was a prodigy. He was anguished lonely loner, and eventually, he evidenced clear and repetitive signs of paranoia and mental illness. He was a tragic genius in every sense of the phrase.
In the summer of 1972 I was in college between my sophomore and junior year. Watching the documentary, sobering though it was, brought back a lot of memories: the weird clothes and long hair, the cars, the sideburns, the news anchors and public personalities. I remember following Fischer and Spassky too.
I played chess through high school and much of college. In high school Physics class several of us played every day. During my undergrad years I came in second in the college tournament two years in a row, beaten both years by my roommate Timothy Barker. We enjoyed the mental challenge of the game, liked the strategy, and followed the Fischer saga for part chess, part patriotic reasons.
Fischer’s story is one of what might have been. What might he have become if he’d not lost his father at a young age and his mother hadn’t abandoned him when he was a teenager? What chess majesty might have been his had he been able to overcome his volatility and emotional pain to play competitively for the next fifteen years after winning the World Championship? What even greater greatness might he have enjoyed had he been able to function as a sociable champion? What would have been his larger impact upon the game of chess if he’d been able to teach, play more, or become an ambassador for the game? Unfortunately we’ll never know.
Just three years ago Fischer died of renal failure in Iceland, refusing treatment and reputedly uttering as his last words, “Nothing is as healing as the human touch.” His life is an American tragedy with a high watermark in the early 1970s.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Michigan has lifted its ban on deer baiting. Too bad. This relatively new hunting habit should be banned for good in Michigan and in every other state. Currently, 28 states ban deer baiting, 8 others limit the practice.
Baiting is the practice of placing carrots or sugar beets or some other food product in piles in the woods to attract deer (or bear) to the food source. Hunters set up nearby and wait for deer, conditioned after a few days of finding food in this spot, walk into range of hunters’ firepower.
Deer baiting seems to me to remove much of the challenge or sport of hunting deer. Unsuspecting deer become ducks in a barrel. The hunter doesn’t have to take time learning deer’s habits, tracking them, or finding the place to stand that most probably will offer a shot opportunity later in the day. Apparently my view is shared by some who support baiting because one of their arguments is that they “don’t have time” to do “real hunting.” No, with baiting, hunters simply bait-and-wait. Doesn’t seem like much of a sport to me.
Banning deer baiting helps reduce the possibility of the spread of disease like bovine TB or chronic wasting disease, which is why Michigan banned the practice for the past few years. Baiting increases likelihood of disease because animals are eating in one place rather than multiple places across the landscape. Now, though, because of political pressure, baiting is back.
Deer baiting is generally not supported by natural resource scientists or their scientific studies. It’s not supported by environmentalists or conservationists. It’s not even supported by most hunters, just a minority who apparently believe they cannot hunt deer in any other way.
I’m not against hunting. Actually, I think baiting harms hunting because it removes much of the need for hunters to spend time in the craft and improve their hunting skills. To put it bluntly, about anyone can sit with a gun and shoot when a target comes in view. That’s not hunting. It’s a carnival shooting gallery.
Baiting should be banned for hunting of any and all animals in all states. Banning baiting for good would be better for not just the animals, or for the sensibilities of the modern public, but for hunters and hunting too. What’s not to like about that?
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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Sports pundits are now writing the requiem of Tiger Woods’s career in professional golf. They’re saying he’ll never win 5 more major championships to surpass Jack Nicklaus. Some, astoundingly, are saying Tiger may not win 5 more tournaments. But come on, the man’s only 35 years old.
I’ve written about Tiger’s character issues. And I’ve written about what he needs to do to reboot his life. Clearly, right now he’s experiencing knee injury problems and his public interviews seem to indicate he’s still struggling with anger and perhaps other emotional issues. Who wouldn’t, given what he’s put himself through and given the family and reputational price he’s paid?
But the man’s only 35 years old, he still must be considered the most gifted golfer in the world, and he has time. Tiger has won 14 major championships. Jack Nicklaus won his last of 18 majors, the high watermark of professional golf, when he was 46 years old. So on that measure alone Tiger has 11 more years.
In eleven years, representing 4 majors per year, it seems to me Tiger might reasonably be expected to win 5 out of 44 major championships. But to give sports pundits their due, this assumes several things that all must come together, and no one, not even Tiger, knows for sure that they will, i.e. his return to physical and mental or spiritual well-being.
But I’m not ready to give up on Tiger. I think he’s surly and often un-likeable. But I don’t wish him ill, I believe his personality could make a George Foreman change if Tiger took certain spiritual steps, I still believe his phenomenal golf skills are there to be reawakened, and I think he has time. So we’ll see.
As just another human being with issues like the rest of us, here’s hoping Tiger gets the help he needs--maybe from "Big George" Foreman himself.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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In the midst of the Congressman Anthony Weiner episode I heard a news channel commentator argue Rep. Weiner got into his sexting scenario because he was a “driven personality.” The commentator went on to suggest that certain personality types were more open to affairs and more likely to get caught with their pants down because of how they’re wired. In other words, the commentator attempted to explain Rep. Weiner’s behavior in psychological terms.
Later, I heard other news pundits reach for psychological constructs and language to explain why a spate of political and other leaders have gotten themselves into sex scandals. To hear these people tell it, these men can all be seen coming down the walk if we just know what to look for in their instincts for leadership. To prove their points the pundits trot out all the examples that seem to fit their hypotheses: FDR, JFK, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, et al.
I don’t doubt psychological issues influence people. While I don’t believe in determinism I do believe Nature, which is to say our environmental background, helps form and affect us. I also believe in the influence of Nurture, the set of values we’re taught, internalize, and choose to live by. I don’t believe anyone is simply a product of his or her chemicals or social wiring.
It seems to me, the real issue with Congressman Weiner, the recently resigned shirtless Congressman Chris Lee, and a host of others is that these men made choices. Their problems are not for the most part psychological but moral, which is to say spiritual. They live in a society that is much more open to men or women making sexually immoral choices than it was in the days of JFK, much less FDR. They are living in the post-Clinton era when sex is something one does that’s somehow outside the boundaries of who you are and what your responsibilities may be.
I don’t know Congressman Weiner, but I can say with reasonable certainty that he has a sin problem. Not “personal demons” outside his control. Not some victimhood reaching back to his youth. But a series of choices on his part to follow his sexual urges wherever they may lead, even after his recent marriage. He admitted to 6 women, which experiences tell us means there are likely several more. Rep. Weiner isn’t acting beyond his control. He is doing exactly what he wanted to do, even if now he regrets being caught.
He said he loves his wife but not enough to discontinue his immoral and highly risky activity. He said, “It’s a private matter,” yet he’s a Congressman who wants to be known and respected and influential. He said he did not break the law, which is as vacuous as the old “There’s no controlling legal authority” argument Al Gore used to cover his poor choices.
Congressman Weiner and virtually all the others we’ve heard about reaching back a few months, Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzeneggrer, Mark Sanford, James E. McGreevey, John Ensign, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, many more in politics, sports, entertainment, corporate, even religion, are individuals who have made wrong choices. They aren’t psychologically impaired. They’re spiritually disconnected from God and a morality that is good for them and everyone around them. This observation sounds judgmental, but actually, it’s kind.
Blaming our lifestyle on psychological wiring or chemistry, as media are inclined to do, suggests our lives are beyond our own influence. If this is true, we’re hopeless.
On the other hand, if a person is free to make wrong choices, i.e. sin, than he or she is free to make good or proper choices, i.e. act rightly or righteously, which is to say there is hope. There is hope for Congressman Weiner and all the other men listed herein who are still living, if they acknowledge their sin, repent, and walk differently.
If they did this it would take time to rebuild trust with spouses, family, the public, if indeed some ever trusted them again. In most cases, they would lose their current opportunity to lead. But in time, many people would trust them again because human beings are more forgiving than they’re usually given credit.
It all depends on the one in the middle, in this case, Anthony Weiner. If he buys into the idea he’s a victim or the idea he’s controlled by forces beyond his influence, he’s toast. If he owns his behavior and chooses a different path, there’s hope.
What’s causing so many leaders to have affairs? Not their personality type but sin, their choices to chase what they want when they want it no matter the consequences.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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The more I read about what Coach Jim Tressel apparently did the more distressed I get. Here is a highly successful coach of a major university football program, a person who at various times touted his Christian faith, and a man who seemed to embody certain virtues-in-leadership. Now it’s come crashing down.
I react in part because—except for six years in West Virginia and New York—I am a lifetime resident of Ohio (grew up there, went to three universities there) and Michigan (for the past 20 years). I like football, have watched hours of it, and am steeped in the Ohio versus Michigan rivalry. And for a long time I’ve liked Tressel. So this hit home.
At a minimum it appears Coach Tressel lied to his superiors, or at least did so by omission in terms of things he didn’t tell them (there’s enough information now to conclude with a fair degree of certainty that he did). Assuming this is so he succumbed to a major breech in professional and personal integrity. No matter his success winning football games or helping student-athletes turn into men, Tressel violated one of the fundamental tenets of leadership. He proved himself untrustworthy.
I don’t think he is alone in this. The Ohio State University Athletic Director Gene Smith and President E. Gordon Gee were kept in the dark for a few months, but they’ve known about all this now for several months. Their knowledge seems to reach back into the fall. If so, they allowed athletes to play in a bowl game when they should not have been allowed to play. And if Tressel deserved to be fired he deserved to be fired back then. Both the A.D. and the President have handled this matter poorly, even flippantly in the case of the President.
But the primary responsibility lies with Tressel. After all these years working with young men, he knew what his athletes were capable of doing and likely what they were actually doing. So maybe it’s a case of “What did he know and when did he know it?” But Coach knew a long time back, covered it up in classic Watergate fashion, by doing so lied to the public and the NCAA as well as his superiors, and tried to finesse his way through. What could have and should have been a serious matter involving a few athletes was thereby magnified to a very serious matter trashing Coach’s reputation, costing him his job, and putting the entire athletic program and university at risk.
Integrity is a powerful thing. When it exists it creates strength. People admire and follow leaders who evidence integrity. When integrity is violated it weakens leaders and leadership, and once gone it is difficult to impossible to rebuild in a given assignment.
Perhaps Coach Tressel can confess his mea culpa and begin anew somewhere else. I hope he possesses the integrity to do this and also that he demonstrates the resolve to “make things right” as opposed to riding off into the sunset. In any event, there was no way he was going to begin anew at OSU, and I think the same may apply to the A.D. and President. For OSU to move on it needs a clean slate and that means the A.D. and the President also need to fall on their sword. Whether they or the Board of Trustees will possess the courage to act remains to be seen.
One last thought: USC and Michigan have come under NCAA sanction and other programs like Auburn have been investigated. What happened at OSU under Tressel is wrong, unprofessional, and possibly illegal. And unfortunately it’s happening at other schools as well. The NCAA needs to step up to the moment and put in place more teeth and more reforms for ethical compliance in university athletics.
In the end this is another lesson in how greed, power, winning-at-all-costs, and hubris can tempt leaders into actions that destroy their character and opportunities for future achievement. It’s sad, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.