They also say that because of all these safeguards, Robert Moses could not operate in the same way today. But the fact is, when Robert Moses started, there were also safeguards. People were also saying, 'You can't build anything.'
It's about the very human desire to be part of something larger than ourselves, and the danger of attaching that desire to power. Pyle believes so completely in his own good intentions that he can't see the harm he's doing in their name. But also about what happens when our faith in institutions begins to collapse while our longing for purpose and belonging remains intact.
A society that trains its youngsters with these degraded values on the sports field will soon find the same vices everywhere else. Long ago, Duke Wellington allegedly boasted that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. Nowadays we could make a less enviable claim, namely that the corruption of our institutions starts in the youth sports leagues.
