Wheel of Misfortune

If you are an IU student, no doubt you know the tragic fate of Julian Batts, a recent contestant on Wheel of Fortune.

With the chance to win $1 million and a car, he messed up both times, once with the mispronunciation of “Achilles” and the other a wild guess. Because of these mistakes, he has been the target of countless barbed comments, insults and generally crappy treatment from nearly all parties.

I find it absolutely remarkable that people are going so far as to denounce not only his competence as a human being, but the effectiveness of our entire educational system — all because he messed up on a game show.

Just because Batts messed up does not give people the right to deem him unworthy. Yes, he made a mistake that many of us would not have. Yes, he made it on national television. But we cannot judge another person when we do not know much, if anything, about his life.

A person’s intelligence is not judged by his performance on a game show. Intelligence is judged within academic, business and social situations. His scholarships suggest he is plenty intelligent.

Let’s play the devil’s advocate, though. Let’s say he isn’t intelligent, and, going all the way to paltry extremism, let’s say he received those scholarships based on a clerical error.

Should we say this, let us also say he is a human, deserving of respect and understanding. He is human, and these are a few of many mistakes he has made.
Like all of us, he has committed stupid mistakes that he will remember days, weeks, even years from now, and the only thing stopping him from reaching back through some rip in the time-space continuum and hitting his past self for being an idiot is the very fact he cannot undo what has been done.

The only difference between him, me and everybody who is reading this right now is that, hopefully, cameras were not filming us when we made our mistakes and they broadcast them across the nation.

Above all the judgment, I find it shocking that many people are aghast that Batts does not feel embarrassed about his performance.

They go on to claim he doesn’t recognize what he did wrong. They believe holding one’s head up high and acknowledging one’s mistakes is tantamount to stupidity.

They believe refusing to be embarrassed is equivalent to ignorance. I have always thought that was dignity.

allenjo@indiana.edu
@IAmJoshAllen