Editorial-The Dangers of Homerism

A common misconception of many competitive types is that success is the product of blindly supporting a position or side without addressing, understanding, or even sometimes siding with potential competitors. Some take this to the extreme by disliking certain competitors so vehemently that they will never support that competitor even if such lack of support will be detrimental to their position. This can hold true in business, sports, politics, and many other aspects of life.

The term Homer has been commonly used in the United States for sports fans who commit such extreme alliances to certain sports teams and vocally support almost every move by their teams even if the objective facts point towards the contrary. Chicago sports fans have been guilty of this, as have fans from other cities. A classic example of a delusional Homer would be former Los Angeles Clippers announcer and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton. The extent to which this Bozo would hype up arguably the worst sports franchise in the history of modern civilization would be sad if it wasn't so ridiculous. In the case of Walton, it was not so dangerous since it was so obvious that the man was simply ranting nonsense to collect a paycheck. The danger arises when people adapt such a Homerist personality that trickles down to other aspects of their lives and into issues much more serious than a sporting event. Unfortunately, true Homers morph into nothing more than pure haters.

The danger of lacking objectivity is that it creates hate and vitriol so delusional that it is detrimental to all parties involved. The current crisis is Egypt is a classic example. The danger in the populist movement that has gripped the world ever since the internet has taken off is that every Dick, Bob and Harry thinks they can knock on the doors of power and boot people out of office. This would be alright if the situation is warranted. Unfortunately, many times these were popular movements that gained steam after going viral and then people blindly start following the movement without looking at the facts. I'm not an expert on Egypt so I won't comment on whether it was warranted or not. I will state that it sets a dangerous precedent when people can overthrow anyone anytime they are upset. Egypt may be an extreme example, but this could give people ideas to boot Obama out of office because they are angry about healthcare or boot Bobby Jindal out of office because they are annoyed with his ridiculous hairdo. I experienced a similar event firsthand as a news assistant with KABC-TV, the powerhouse ABC affiliate in Los Angeles. I worked there during the recall of then California Governor Gray Davis. Davis, a man I met and talked to personally when I later worked at CNN, in my opinion was a nice fellow who got shafted by a media and public that turned on him. The movement to recall him went viral and people started turning on him for a former Austrian steroid-user/average-at-best actor. It didn't matter what the facts supporting Davis were, the people had decided to go against him without providing any objective reasoning. Hardcore Republican and Democrats do this all the time. That's why we're always stuck with the candidate with the deepest pockets because the strategists know that a few extra buck of advertising goes a long way in brainwashing a bunch of rar rar go team Homers. In Chicago we've seen the consequence of this. It's called the Chicago Cubs. The longer fans admire the ivy and pack the stands, the longer the team can employ stand-ins for major league baseball players that can push the World Series drought into a third century. Homerism empowers the opposition.

The same applies to relationships in business and personally. Many times people refuse to let go of their views, When this happens, the opposition has no wiggle room and it creates an unbreakable stalemate that is a lose-lose for all involved. Cults are notorious for manipulating Homers. A famous example of this was the Jonestown massacre where Jim Jones told his followers to ingest a deadly "kool-aid" poison that resulted in one of the greatest mass suicides in World History.

To conclude, I sincerely hope that all the voters in the current Chicago election look closely at all the candidates and make a responsible and educated decision. Yes Emmanuel has deep pockets and a great deal of experience in power. However, people should not simply vote for Rahm based on the big name. He's running for Chicago Mayor, a position that has seen everyone from Harold Washington to Jane Byrne (Yes there have been Chicago mayors not named Daley). Everyone should put their Homerisms aside and look at who is the best person for the job, not who is the big name or the person they like. A lack of objectivity or vilifying the opposition takes you from the ridiculousness of a Bill Walton to the deadliness of an Adolf Hitler. Both Homers, but the latter decided to gas his opponents. There's nothing funny about that.

Bollywood Jay