Waldini's Logic - Part I

Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. ~Ambrose Bierce



I'm going to hit you with a 3 part epic, all focused on logic. Each piece will focus on different points in my life where logic and common sense had to be used to combat the forces of dumbness. Understand that there are many more situations where I fight for the normal minded but as of today, this is all I can remember :-). Hey, blame it on old age!

Do you remember the infamous Malice at the Palace a few years ago? Quick refresher, it was a NBA regular season game between the Pistons and the Pacers. Pistons player Ben Wallace was peeved at what he thought was a hard foul from Pacers player Ron Artest and pushed Ron. Artest went to the players’ scoring table, laid down on his back, a fan threw a cup at him, and madness ensued. Players fighting fans, players fighting players, just complete chaos.

Anyway I bring this up because the night the Malice happened, I was in my MBA class. A few of my classmates actually witnessed the brawl via the TV breakroom as it happened, then came back into class to let a few of us know what happened. One of the cats starts talking about the NBA being nothing but a bunch of thugs, which I didn’t understand nor care for. I felt frisky that evening so I decided to question what he meant by that comment. He was like c’mon Waldini they are thugs, just look at them, always fighting and attacking folks. So I started naming names to see if he thought they were thugs. Grant Hill, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki were players that immediately came to mind. Again he goes “you know what I mean, most of them are thugs. Name me one sport where they fight more than the basketball.” I retorted “Hockey.” He got upset and again goes you know what I mean.

Another classmate adds fuel to the fire by saying “They are thugs by just all the tattoos they have on their bodies.” Again I shoot back “So if I told you I had a tattoo of our company name or logo on my arm, would you say I’m a thug or someone that loves the company.” And then I showed her my tattoo on my arm. I should have came back with so are NFL and MLB full of thugs because quite a few players in both leagues sport tattoos as well. They just wear more upstairs than the NBA players. Of course, there's a deeper reason why she made that comment but I'll explore that in later posts. (Memo to self, discuss "Who's afraid of the rich black man?")

You would think that would be enough bad commentary but nope one other classmate had something to say. He said that Artest should have let that cup thrown on him slide because he makes more money than that fan. So I said “ok well you are a manager, I’m a regular employee, and I’m pretty sure you make more money than me. So if I throw this Coke on you right now, are you going to let it slide because you make more money than me or are you going to jump over this desk to swing at me?” (I actually seriously thought about doing this to prove my point further). Again another one of those “you know what I mean Waldini” comments came from his mouth as well.

Today's Lesson

The above story illustrates the crazy logic that goes on in some people’s minds. How does having a tattoo on your body equate to being a thug? Would you simply just walk away if someone threw something at you, even if you knew they made less money than you? And what sane person doesn’t believe that more fighting happens in baseball and hockey today versus basketball? Let’s just say I’m the wrong person to debate with sometimes, because I like to disarm you with facts instead of fiction.