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For the most part, when we as a society think about gambling or betting we think of losers. Bettors are scum. They smoke cigarettes, they don't like sunlight, and they plunk quarters into machines while the rest of us are out frolicking in amber waves of grain. I mean they're pretty much as immoral as they get, right?
You're probably reading this at work. (C'mon, I know most of you are just pining away with your fingers on the alt-tab keys in case Boss Hog busts in to make sure you're not reading empty articles on the virtues of pork.) And something unusual is almost certainly happening this month at your office, and it ain't actually work. It's called March Madness.
March Madness is the NCAA basketball tournament, the 64 teams, the single-loss elimination. The term actually came into play in the early 1930s, but it wasn't for college basketball, it was used to describe the high school basketball fever scorching Illinois. Henry V. Porter coined the term, and it grew in popularity from there. I bet ol' Hank never dreamed what it would signify today.
Because today it's not just about basketball and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, it's about money. Don't act surprised, young capitalist. Yes, the Americans who denounce gambling as an activity reserved for the morally vacuous are the same ones slapping down their bills o' twenty with hopes of impressing the secretary enough for a cheap date at Arby's (talk about power lunches). Heck, you can even download free office pool software from the Net.
Some people go for the easy pick, the top four seeds from each region going to the Final Four, and some go for the longshots. Some people stick with their home teams and some go for mascots. I'm kind of partial to teams whose home cities are bordered on three sides by water. Everyone does it.
We enthusiastically scorn known gamblers; Pete Rose is a pariah, Brandon from 90210's a loser, and even Kenny Rogers' albums haven't sold well in recent years. But with March Madness, Americans have taken hypocrisy to a new level. Instead of the gamblers being the losers, now it's the people who don't participate who are the at the bottom of the office status ladder — they might as well be the pizza delivery guy.
Nice double standard we've got going, don't you think? Coming through in the clutch, as always, no matter what the consequence. Now that's being an American — madness no matter what the month.
Daniel Weinshenker thinks he made a mistake when he chose Copenhagen to win the whole thing.
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