This thread is revealing and discouraging at the same time. Honor and integrity still have value in my family.
That's noble it really is and insofar as ones daily interactions within the confines of ones friends and family in that environment not only is it noble but it is necessary for the continued existence of a good stable society both intrafamily and beyond.
But out in the "cold hard world" of the high level of the sporting world and some work and business places in this country the motto of "if you ain't cheating you ain't trying" hard enough to bring better fortunes for you and your family has some validity to it, that is if one wants some higher levels of successes in these ventures depending on how those successes are defined.
This after ones been around long enough to see how too many get screwed in the golden rule of life where "he who has the gold rules". Makes the rules and takes advantage of unfair advantages and circumstances. Essentially the elite keeping themselves elite at the expense of some of those with less circumstantial advantages.
When one gets old enough to see it happen again and again and again it jaundices one somewhat to no longer deal in absolutes, to know that yes one needs err on the side of good moral behavior practicing the other golden rule as much is possible in ones personal sphere, and beyond whenever possible, to keep doing the right thing as a general course of action for the good of themselves, their family and by extension society.
But in this discussion here if your not playing the game the way it's played by others in ones sporting and in some business spheres then your putting yourself at an unfair competetive disadvantage if success at the highest level is desired and you're not playing the game the way so many others are.
Now some hard working intelligent souls negotiate this unfair playing field and do not compromise and do indeed achieve some good modicum of desired levels of success and God bless them, but if ones seeing others get unfair advantages on an unequal unfair playing field, while obviously and in some cases blatantly cheating (NC ahem), many times getting away with it (whatever is defined as cheating), it lessens the threshold for me to care as much if our program(s) do the same to a similar degree, but never to the insane level where lives are harmed such as with PSU.
Its certainly not an attractive reality, all of this, but it is reality at this level of sport.
