It's Your Choice

At the highest reaches of our economy, there's greater opportunity for dislocation, in part because pay is only loosely connected to actual labor-pricing mechanisms. Margaret Whitman does not make what anyone has decided that she's worth; she makes a market-determined, second-order derivative of that estimation, in the form of stock options. Those options may reflect her value, but it's more likely that they reflect a lot of stuff over which she has little control. When Tiger Woods takes home $1 million from a tournament, the purse is a testament to his golfing prowess -- not a strict valuation of his contribution to society or his commercial value.

If you read the sports pages, you know that baseball player Darryl Strawberry -- already recovering from cocaine addiction -- was arrested on charges of solicitation. Onetime teen tennis prodigy Jennifer Capriati did drugs and shoplifted. We know more about sports celebrities' personal lives than ever before, and often what we learn isn't pretty. Given that this is the case, how much do you agree with each of the following statements?

"We've lost the ability to idolize sports stars as heroes, and that ability was comforting and healthy."

Completely agree -- 25.4%
Somewhat agree -- 54.1%
Completely disagree -- 20.5%

"This is reality. Sports figures are human beings, just like everyone else, and understanding that fact is healthy."

Completely agree -- 44.5%
Somewhat agree -- 44.0%
Completely disagree -- 11.5%

"Sports celebrities lead grotesquely distorted lives -- lives that are very different from everyone else's -- and it's healthy not to idolize them."

Completely agree -- 30.1%
Somewhat agree -- 47.1%
Completely disagree -- 22.8%

Arguably, this isn't a question just about sports. It's a proxy for our feelings about celebrity in general. There's a sense that the celebrification of everyone and everything cheapens what matters. Yet, when John Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down last summer, we stayed glued to CNN for days. Celebrity both fascinates us and repels us.

That conflict shows up most clearly in our attitudes toward professional athletes. Nearly 90% of respondents agree, completely or somewhat, that sports stars are human, "just like everyone else." At the same time, more than three-quarters say that players' lives are "grotesquely distorted" and "very different from everyone else's." So we don't want to idolize them. Yet 80% of us also say that it was "comforting and healthy" to idolize sports icons in the good old days. If we could only find a way back . . .

Yes, the results reflect internal conflict. But they also tell us that different groups have different opinions. Younger people are more likely to say that athletes are just human; older people, to say that sports idolatry was once healthy and that it is now unhealthy. Higher-income folks tend to say that it is unhealthy. And, interestingly, in response to this question, women answer no differently from men.

Perhaps the truth is that there are heroes, and then there are heroes. This community recognizes the value of performance and tends to associate accomplishment with worth. Mistakes and bad behavior don't go unnoticed, but they can be overshadowed by a brilliant business decision or by one swing of the bat.

This Millennium -- and the Next

Which of the following statements comes closest to your view of the new millennium?

"I marvel at the opportunities that lie ahead for today's children. Because of technological innovation and global connection, their world will seem limitless compared with ours" -- 41.2%

"I worry about our children's future. Tomorrow's world is fraught with risk and danger, and we're not providing the education or the values that kids need to steer a sound course" -- 46.3%

"The world doesn't change much in a single generation. The opportunities and risks that today's children will face are going to be about the same as those that we confronted" -- 12.5%

When it comes to a vision of our children's future, half of us are wildly optimistic, and half of us are profoundly troubled. Only one in eight believes that our children's lives will be pretty much like ours. Notably, 53% of female respondents envision a future world "fraught with risk," compared with just 42% of male respondents. Men tend to marvel at their kids' opportunities. The young and the poor tend to worry; the old and the wealthy tend to marvel.

Let's think about the 22nd century for a moment. Which scenario best describes what the workplace of the 22nd century will be like?

"Star Trek": Free from concerns about material needs, people will focus instead on personal fulfillment -- 23.9%