It is a metaphor for the current, sad state of “law,” and, more importantly “lawfulness.”
I’m speaking of the “coin flip,” which was used to determine possession in the overtime “sudden death” San Diego Chargers/Indianapolis Colts game. This was not the first time I’ve seen this, of course; I remember howling about it before the last Superbowl™ and some since.
You see, coin flipping has been used to determine important questions along with its sister ritual, drawing straws: men’s fates, elections, even the naming of the city of Portland, Oregon (chosen in a coin flip after a tie vote: the other name was “Boston”).
And, to ensure fairness, you always call it IN THE AIR.
Why?
Because any half-way competent sleight-of-hand artist can have a two-headed and two-tailed coin palmed. Just flip the one that whomever you want to win should have. Too important to leave to possible cheating, you examine the coin, and then call it in the air.
Nope: The NFL Way is to call it, then they flip it.
Am I saying anyone cheated? Who knows?
There is an old concept that we’ve forgotten. It’s called, secularly, “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.” Those who make the laws must appear as the most law-abiding, else no one will obey the laws. Or rules. This holds true across the entire society, not just football referees, or those who would attempt to rig outcomes.
You find it in the “Lord’s Prayer” .. “and lead us not into temptation.”
Because underlying lawfulness is a fundamental honesty.People will do in darkness that which they would never consider in the full light of day. And when the highest officers of the law fail to recuse themselves in a critical case in which their relatives stand to benefit* … we have forgotten that honesty. (Bush v. Gore* — Thomas’ wife was vetting potential Bush Administration hires while Scalia’s son was an attorney for the Bush campaign.)
When we watch the law trampled and spat upon by the highest officials and celebrities, why should we, then, obey the law? Paris Hilton and Britney Spears have faced more legal sanctions than Rush Limbaugh (drugs) or Scooter Libby (outing a CIA agent and obstructing justice in that outing).
And when it looks like you COULD cheat on a coin toss, that’s not avoiding even the appearance of impropriety. Eventually, it WILL lead someone into temptation, that’s pretty much guaranteed.
And when you have the right to eavesdrop without oversight, sooner or later you WILL eavesdrop on your political enemies, and use that illegal (in every sense of the word) knowledge to your advantage.
One way that a culture avoids criminality is by transparency.
I know, it’s just a coin flip. But it’s a symptom of a far greater social malaise.
The importance here is that the flipper of the coin can, and might have cheated.
I am not in the least suggesting that there was any hanky panky, nor do I question the propriety of the official. I question the propriety of the PROCESS. Not one cowboy in one bar in Wyoming would consent to any contest in which you didn’t call it in the air. But, with millions of dollars bet on playoff games, we assume that referees are above question? Above impropriety, and, therefore the appearance of less-than-propriety isn’t a problem, because it’s all just foolish?
Come on. Who the hell is so dumb that they don’t know how you flip a coin, fairly? And, more importantly, who would want to create a situation where coin-flipping MIGHT be rigged? Should the need arise, of course.
Look, people have been cheating other people with rigged coins and dice from time immemorial, and rigging card decks ever since the major arcana were stripped from the tarot deck (only the Fool, the “joker” remains) and cards were used for gambling games sometime in the 13th Century.
Are we so smart and sophisticated that an Athenian sharper could have tricked us in the market square Socrates walked in?
Which is damned pathetic, when you think about it. If we can’t even be assured of justice from a simple coin flip, how do we expect it from laws? And if we do not have faith in law anymore, then how can lawfulness prevail?
Because law is the substrate of the civilization that gives us these marvelous toys. Lose the laws, lose the lawfulness, lose the courtesy and politeness, and the impossibly complex machinery that creates the commonwealth with wonders like computers, blackberries, cell phones, power lines, automobiles and fuel stations, supermarkets, shopping malls, weather satellites and ski lifts … well, that all goes away.
And when it does, consider that we had grown so ethically stupid and/or depraved that we neither knew how to do a simple fair, above-reproach coin flip, nor how to protest THAT ISN’T THE WAY YOU FLIP A COIN, IDJITS!
Of course, what else would you expect from a society in which the cool male hairstyle has been to make it look as though one had not combed his hair?
Oh, never mind.
Courage.
