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Sports-political post below.  And this one actually is controversial.  So please avert your eyes if applicable :- )

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I Change My Oil Every 50,000 Miles.  So What?

Remember, as you read, that the debate over Sherman's trash talk is ON.  SSI did not start this debate!  SSI is offering one possible route through the ethical jungle.   That's all.

Sherman's smack talk is being hotly debated.   But ... debated, based on what paradigm?  How do you establish right and wrong?  

The company that built your house put the studs 16" apart, or something.  Based on what?  Based on a code established by the government.  Behind this code is the intuition and experience of people who have built houses.  That was the platform for establishing a standard.

What is our platform, in America in 2014, for establishing what behavior is "ethically" or "morally" okay?  Fifty years ago, it was very clear:  Judeo-Christian Ethics was the basis for the standard.  Nowadays this is not the case.  I'm speaking merely from a sociological perspective.  

When Vince Lombardi won his first NFL championship, Americans generally agreed on Right and Wrong.  Perhaps they were mistaken.  The point is, the consensus was solid.  

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You've got tons and tons of air time, every day, asking whether Sherman's behavior is "okay."  People would like an answer, but have little basis for finding one.  In my opinion this sets up the entire debate to fail.  On TV, the answers amount to very little more than, "I LIKE Richard Sherman's talk" or "I DON'T LIKE Richard Sherman's talk."  

At Bill James Online, he talks about an (actual) upcoming U.S. Civil War.  If you can't agree on a standard by which to resolve simple questions, with nothing at stake, what do you do with the complex ones, with life and death at stake?  :- )

Here are four possible paradigms, each of which are outside the one that we agreed on between 1650 and 1950 A.D.

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Not a Lot of Trash Talk In Golf 

Mo' Dawg, who is a tournament-level golfer, stated the Case Against quite eloquently.  Thanks Dawg.  :- )

It's not like you're going to hear Adam Scott predicting a fold by Tiger Woods in the Masters.  Mo's perspective is in the minority in America in 2014, but he does a great job of stating it, no?

I wonder why, in golf and in baseball, smack talk is against code ... but in football it's so encouraged.  This includes the fans' reactions, and occurs at a moral level.  I have no idea.

As mentioned before, NFL Network had a poll as to whether Sherman should dial it DOWN or UP ... 36% down, 64% up.  This completely mystified the non-football-playing media types on the show.

Here, the paradigm seems to be one of dignity.  In golf -- present company excepted -- a big part of the culture is that here we are well-behaved, we are cultured, we have honor and respect which exceeds that of the Unwashed Masses.  I'm talking about high-class country club golf, not about Mo' Dawg.

The paradigm of "Dignity" is sometimes effective.  As you know, it is paramount in Japan.  They achieve a lot, ethically, with this paradigm.  Of course, the attitude about those who are different than they are is an example of one problem with the paradigm...

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Thy Speech Betrayeth Thee, Dept.

Sherman himself comes off as shaky and conflicted when trash-talking into the microphone.  When he called Crabtree a mediocre receiver, you could hear the quaver in his voice.  I'm guessing that he is conflicted about his spiritual morals and the "malice" involved when he embarrasses a person in public like that.

Sherman will occasionally refer to being "blessed," refer to the Almighty, respond to reporters by saying "I don't hate anybody" and so forth.  He was apparently brought up in some sort of religious background, which probably helped to keep him out of the gangs that prowled his neighborhood.

Without a doubt, there would be something inconsistent about Joel Osteen "trash talking" a rival TV evangelist ... or anybody, for that matter.

Being inconsistent with your own principles is a rather weighty problem.  If that's in fact the case.  Using this paradigm -- his own beliefs and standards -- Sherman is obviously "wrong" if he sees himself as trying to live by New Testament principles. 

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The Corporate America Paradigm

Seems, to me, to resolve into a question of "do I LIKE this behavior."

Grizzly pointed out that the sales of Sherman jerseys have gone wayyyyyy up, that his interviews are up, that he's much more popular now, etc.  No doubt.  And this implies, also, that most Americans sign off on Sherman's behavior as perfectly acceptable.

There you go.  Majority vote.  (Problem with this?  Each year, the young people of America find more edgy behavior to be "perfectly acceptable.")  

Using the Lady GaGa paradigm, Sherman's behavior is not only "right," it's genius.  (Not to say that Grizzle, who is evidently a very responsible senior manager in his company, himself uses a Lady GaGa paradigm!)

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The Hypocrisy Paradigm

All that said, I liked Michael Irvin's take the best.  America keeps demanding that TV make it Real.  We want more and more Real.  Then Richard Sherman GIVES us real -- a slight taste of what's actually happening on the field -- and we swoon away and suffer the vapors...

The NFL, on-field, is a bizarre game.  In terms of PSYCHIC violence.  What are we saying, just that we want them to do it out of our sight?

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Dr. D's Paradigm

Personally, I wouldn't talk like Sherman into a TV microphone, or would try not to.  The NFL Commissioner -- and Pete Carroll -- yanked on Sherman's leash, as it were, telling him "Whoa, kid.  We don't want people to think you're a bad guy when you're not."

But, why "Bad Guy"?  What's behind that?

Remember, now, that the debate over Sherman's trash talk is ON.  Dr. Detecto did not start this debate!  It's on.  We're offering SSI's route through the ethical jungle.

Two points:

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1) I believe that we all sense that the ideal is to Love Our Enemies.  All of us have consciences.  These consciences bark at us when we do things wrong, and those consciences do not accept excuses.  

If you take $500 out of the company till, your conscience does not care that somebody stole $500 from you yesterday.  Your conscience is completely impervious to excuses - did you ever notice that?  Your conscience works in terms of ideals - in terms of absolute right and wrong.  Moral relativism need not apply within your own heart.

It says here that Richard Sherman's conscience is dinging him, for causing Tim Crabtree unnecessary pain.  That's my opinion I could be wrong.  :- )

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2)  Conflicting with this, we all (or most of us) are reacting to the feminization of America.

It's not acceptable to behave like a 1950's man any more.  Or an 1850's man, or a 1000 BC man, or a 50,000 BC man.  This societal requirement -- Don't Be Aggressive In Real Life -- is very recent, and is against our DNA.

We need a healthy outlet for our masculine tendencies -- aggression, physical courage, extreme ambition, etc.  Females, in my humble opinion, need an outlet for their desire to admire masculine tendencies.  (Cindy and Jennifer, my wife and daugher, loves love love Richard Sherman.)

We've been funnelled into sitting back, effetely, and watching these traits on TV.  As Richard Sherman said recently, "We do things on the field that you'd go to jail for, if you did off the field."  He cracked the audience up.

We want some courage and aggression ... no, we crave the courage and aggression in our lives.  Sherman, and the Seahawks, are behaving with complete fearlessness.  We're riveted by this moral quality of Absolute Courage, one which we see so little of in our real lives.

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3)  Sherman's trash talk is, nominally, outside the boundaries of what Judeo-Christian ethics would approve of.  

But this consideration is dwarfed by the fact that, under extreme stress and pressure, he is acting like a Man.  In a society painfully devoid of them (or a society that looks on TV, at least, like it is devoid of them).

In a vacuum, trash talk is nominally unethical.  But in the context of America's societal evolution, it provides inspiration we badly need.

That's my opinion I could be wrong,

Jeff