Who To Root For…

The purpose of a player on Survivor is to outwit, outlast, and outplay all of your opponents in order to win 1 Million Dollars. Seems like a pretty simple and easy-to-follow purpose statement, but if you’ve ever watched more than one season of Survivor, you’d know that it is not.
Each and every season, players from all over the country show up in some exotic location with one thought on their mind: $1,000,000.
All they have to do is keep the prize in sight for nearly 40 days and it could very well be theirs.
But there’s this one pesky little thing that always emerges a day or two into the game, and it’s a thing that has been helping and plaguing mankind since the beginning: RELATIONSHIPS!
Everyone on Survivor almost always forms real-meaningful- these could never be brought on in any other circumstance-relationships almost immediately. And things like feelings, loyalty, jealousy, and love immediately cloud the finish line of $1 Million.
I guess it speaks some good about our culture; that at the root of all we do are relationships- that it truly is not good for man to be alone.
But this is a game where you must outwit, outlast, and outplay in order to win. And when relationships emerge, so do things like ethics and playing fair in order to protect other people’s feelings.
Every once in a while, though, a player emerges who keeps his head on straight and remembers that what they are doing is playing a game.
This year that person-type emerged immediately. His name was Russell.
Russell excessively lied to his fellow castaways, sabotaged his own team, and found coveted immunity idols without clues. He played the game well.
But because of playing the game well, Russell was viewed negatively amongst many of his competitors, and especially the American people who want to see the ‘nice guy’ win.
So the question is, “do the ends justify the means- in Survivor?”
You lie and decieve in some ways with card games, board games, and sports.
No one ever complains about your relationship and their feelings when you bluff them in poker. No one ever gets paranoid and jealous when your nations are conquered by a friend while playing risk. No one’s emotions are spun out of control when a quarterback fakes-out the defense by acting as if he’s going to pass the ball, but makes a run with it instead. Why? because these are all games and so is Survivor, and they’re all games that require outwitting your opponent in order to win.
So if you’re a contestant on Survivor, of course you want to be moral by not hooking-up with all the bikini clad girls in your tribe and by not beating up the annoying guy on your team. but as far as ethics go, it’s kind of a free-for-all because it’s a game!
So is it ok to lie, steal, and decieve in Survivor? It is in poker, basketball, and football because we all understand that it’s part of the game and nothing personal. and we all understand that those aspects of the games we play, most of the time, don’t bleed over into our personal ‘real’ lives.
So when it comes to Survivor; do you root for the ‘nice’ guy or girl who tries to make everyone happy and gets clouded by emotions and relationships?Or do you root for the hardnose guy who does whatever it takes to win the game?
Me, I vote for the latter. And if I’m ever a contestant, I vow to play with a high level of Christ-like morality, but when it
comes to ethics and relationships- watch out because I’m going to be there to win because IT IS A GAME!

On a sidenote- Russell did not win. Natalie did who won with the ‘strategy’ of being nice and flying under the radar. Way to go Natalie!
And as for Russell, the unethical guy I rooted for most of the season, he lost and was a horribly sore loser. I was disappointed in his total lack of sportsmanship.