Topic: Power
"I didn't invent the culture, and I didn't try to stop the culture." Out of all the ridiculous attempts to "apologize" for his sociopathic behavior, this is my favorite quote so far from Lance Armstrong's "tell all" interview with Oprah.
Of course, he's not telling all. It's obvious. As one commentator says, he's learning to tell the truth in this process. Not sure how much he's learning, frankly. Yet you and I can learn a LOT about collusion with evil from his comments.
Perpetrators and colluders both try to excuse themselves through rationalization. Blaming the culture--whether it's the national culture or a sub-culture, such as a professional community or, in Lance's illustration, the racing community--is just one form of rationalization.
It's what we all do when we fail to stand up against evil or just blatantly give into the thinking of the day that allows us to join other perpetrators like this guy that so many saw as an honest hero.
Just a few days ago, I asked a pertinent set of questions. One was: "Can we be both a loser and a winner at the same time?" Lance Armstrong clearly shows that he could have been, if indeed there was no way to win without doping. There are more important ways to be a winner than winning a race! Sadly, he isn't a winner in any way. Unless, of course, the race is about messing up other people's lives. In that, he's got lots of company, though he may rank close to the top of this list of "(s)winners."
