Mr. Goss appears to conflate two different items in here - feelings regarding actions related solely to quizbowl, and feelings related to anything else. I can condone his assertions on the first. I cannot condone his assertion on the second. With quizbowl, as Mr. Goss has stated quite well, the eventual impact on anyone's lives is pretty much meaningless. I have made some friends and had some fun in quizbowl, but I'm not playing it professionally in Estonia and hoping for my big break. If you're going to get into a snit over single-elimination playoffs, thank your lucky stars that you are well-enough off that you can devote time to worrying about this. I agree with Mr. O'Neal that tournaments should not be granted carte blanche access to do whatever they want, but there is a very specific limit to how much time and emotion that you should devote to it. The second, however, deals with willful emotional or physical cruelty to someone else - items that often occur outside of tournaments but within the so-called "society". This I cannot brush off with "chill out" - whether it refers to ad hominem attacks in a tournament review or nasty comments against someone in a public or private setting or other similar actions. I can't see holding a grudge for writing a ridiculously easy lead-in, but I can see holding a grudge against someone who uttered a racial slur, spread a vicious rumor, assaulted someone, or made someone else the butt of a cruel joke - particularly if the perpetrator of the incident felt no remorse. If someone in my office were sexually harassed, an attitude of "just get over it" would not be acceptable legally or morally - nor should it ever be. This is not solely relevant to quizbowl - school, work, and other activities all present certain situations that cannot be taken as life-or-death in nature, but interpersonal relationships in those areas can and should be taken much more seriously. Conflating the two is a very, very bad idea. Hayden Hurst hurstrh_at_...
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