Steroids, Hurricanes and Terrorists: a Systems Approach

As dramatic as the media coverage of George Mitchell's report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball may have been, and as amazing (and understandable) as Commissioner Bud Selig's understated response to the report (and to MLB's ongoing drug crisis) has been, both the media drama and the commissioner's understatement were predictable for anyone who no longer believes that magical wishful thinking is the most effective remedy to the pressing issues of any given day.

Contrasted with cycling's and track and field's fallen heros and heroines, baseball's millionaire gladiators--and I'm writing here about those who actually have used banned substances--will pay ever-so-slightly, if at all, for their transgressions. No Marion Jones hits for them. These men were victimized by a culture and an infrastructure that rendered their behavior unavoidable. They cheated because the environment demanded it.

It was a systemic failure--baseball's failure, the players' union's failure, the teams' failures and the owners' failures. How could anyone expect an individual elite athlete to withstand the pressures that come with the expectations that come with playing baseball in public for lots of money? Those players who don't cheat are the true enigmas--they're the ones who should be investigated. They must be doing something wrong to resist what their counterparts have so readily embraced.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? No one at FEMA, or at any state or local agency did anything wrong (although the poor who insisted on living where a hurricane might hit surely must bear some responsibility). Systemic failure that's still obvious right now in many areas devastated two years ago by that storm again reared it's ugly head. Brownie did a heckuva job, resigned, then pointed out how all the systems failed--except the one that allowed an unqualified individual to head FEMA.

Do you recall September 11, 2001? Then National Security Advisor Rice has made it very clear that, you guessed it, a systemic failure--especially during the Clinton administration--made that day possible, and that she, her boss and their colleagues would have moved heaven and earth to prevent what happened that day had they had better intelligence. According to her, the system dictated that the August 6 Presidential Daily Brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" was simply a historical document, and not one that should raise concern about an imminent threat, although she's less clear about what the system had to say about the June CIA communications entitled "Bin Laden Attacks May Be Imminent" and "Bin Laden and Associates Making Near-Term Threats."

Damn systems, I swear. Responsible for thousands of deaths--allow terrorist attacks, can't provide competent aid in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and now encourage scandal in the national pastime--and all of those traumatic arguments that have already begun among sportscasters and fans.

What's an individual to do? Are there even any individuals left?

When things go wrong, I mean.