Fair Society
Fair play is capable of building a better society.
Sport is an integral part of social coexistence that offers a faithful reflection of the concepts of honesty and fair behaviour not only during games and competitions but during everyday life as well. It is this proactive attention and purposeful respect for each other practiced among the people in a community that can provide the mutual interdependence and equality characteristic of fair societies. It is this mutually shared ministration that allows for the distribution of goods in a community on the basis of need. Subsequently, rules regulating society are established in harmony with the principle of equality.
In addition to equality before the law, equality of chances and equal opportunities, the concept of equality constitutes one of the principal cornerstones of the Fair Play Society. According to the notion of equality in such a society, it is not enough to put laws and human rights at the service of equal opportunities - more is needed. Indeed, in sport fair play is more than that! It is a form of behaviour in which ethical and honest behaviour is more important than success and victory.
Besides principles and laws, examples of unselfish human behaviour in the Fair Play Society are best illustrated by athletes. Honest competition, unselfish respect shown in a competitive situation, altruism and the promotion of the common good are values that go without saying in sport and which have appeared in the everyday life of laypeople with the help of athletes, thus giving credence to the viability of human cooperation.
According to the written and unwritten rules of cooperation characteristic of the Fair Play Society, in seeking to achieve their own goals everyone makes sure their actions are acceptable to others without anyone being hurt. The key to cooperation is held by the party possessing a symbolic advantage: for instance, in the case of a child, power is in the hands of the parent and the teacher who in turn depend for direction on the establishment whose responsibility is to maintain continuity. This hierarchy obliges the party fulfilling the "more powerful" role to be considerate: to offer various forms of cooperation and create a culture of cooperation by limiting itself. This process appears in sports activities as well. In sport, we must view the opponent as we do ourselves: not as an enemy but as a partner whom we address with respect in our common aim.
The foundation of the Fair Play Society is mutual and purposeful attention and self-restraint that derive, most of all, from common ethical ideals. Nowadays, the ideals and sense of responsibility necessary for human cooperation can be shaped by parents, teachers and also the media in the first place.
The "attentive" man and woman, the "attentive" community can only exist in the Fair Play Society in which the success of justice and cooperation is assured by the omnipresent attitude of fair play. It is in the realisation of these ideals that the spirit of sport and Olympism can be of help.
Everyone wins with fair play.
