Sports organizations are once again singled out for the presence of deviant behavior that testifies to mentalities from another era. In response to this phenomenon, a parliamentary commission on violence in junior hockey has just been created by the Quebec government.
However, from the outset, all eyes will be on the sports organizers. We all believe from the start that these degrading abuses inflicted on young children during initiations would never have taken place if there had not been the willful blindness of the organizations in place.
So logically, if we want such situations not to happen again (or at least, to decrease), we had to question and sanction the individuals and their motivations which drag them into this delinquent wake. What if we were on the wrong track?
Towards a change of mentality
In order to better understand this phenomenon of violence in sports, we should broaden our perspective and recognize that we are all, you and I, both victims and responsible for the barbarity that prevails in the sporting world. Because as long as we are consumers of this product (hockey), the organizers will not really feel concerned by the change.
Why change a formula when it pays off? As long as we fill the arenas and as long as we take our children to practice on Saturday morning (by contributing to the petty cash fund aimed at settling sexual disputes out of court), the organizers will not feel concerned by the change.
And above all, until we realize that the toxic actions of sports organizations directly affect the physical and mental health of our children, nothing will change in our mentalities.
In fact, you can make hundreds of survey commissions, nothing will change in the long run without this shift in consumer mindset.
It is undeniable that play, sports and sports organizations are essential in our society, but at what cost? That of humiliated and devalued children? We are still no longer in the time of Roman gladiators.
The humanization of institutions
Overall, we must therefore change our mentality by valuing the human before the well-being that we feel as consumers. And as long as we do not put human values at the forefront (in all the institutions that surround us), we will favor the action of deviant institutional structures. From a human point of view, the physical and psychological integrity of individuals must always take precedence over the values of institutions.
In fact, what is happening now is beneficial to our evolution as a society.
Violence in sports should be seen as a “poorly wrapped gift” that points us towards hopefully big change.
The commission of inquiry should therefore take the opportunity to ask the real questions and draw real lessons.
We should understand that all institutions (political, legal, medical and sports) must serve to humanize the social structures in which we live. It is therefore not up to individuals to adapt and accept the principles advocated by organizations, but to institutions to adapt to basic human needs. These same needs that we have always had, and which boil down to living in a healthy, respectful and non-violent environment.