The Whole Is Worth More Than The Sum of It's Parts

I don’t get the drama about Luiz Suarez, the soccer player on the Uruguay team who is being criticized for ‘cheating’ in the World Cup Soccer Championship.

I actually consider myself to be a pretty ethical person. I stopped watching basketball games because I don’t like the way the opposite teams’ fans wiggle furiously, long colourful balloons, to distract the player from achieving a successful foul shot. I encourage cheering at baseball games and “tsk tsk” those around me who are booing and shouting profanities to the players on the field. I applaud regularly regardless of who scores at hockey games and shout positive encouragements to those in the spotlight. I usually root for the underdog, and I fully participate in the excitement and glory of the game; including the win.

Suarez did something that apparently is a moral sin in soccer. He used his hands to stop the ball from going into the net. Now, Luiz admits that he knew exactly what he was doing. It was not unconscious or inadvertent. He knew it would get him thrown out of the game and suspended from the next game his team played. Everyone knows in soccer YOU DON’T TOUCH THE BALL WITH YOUR HANDS!

But in answer to the Globe and Mail’s question “So how do you explain that one to the kids?” here’s my answer:

I don’t consider Suarez to be a cheater at all. I think of him as a quintessential team player. Soccer is a team sport. Luiz was thinking as a player in the team. If the whole is worth more than the sum of it’s parts, Luiz comprised a very important part. Ghana would have won the game had Luiz not prevented that goal! But he was not thinking about himself. He didn’t have his own glory in mind. He was thinking about the whole team. He did it for the sake of his team’s success. That’s cooperation!