However, Lance never had smooth ride - rumors surfaced regularly that he was doping or using performance enhancement drugs on the road to victories. To his "credit", Lance vehemently denied it. Not only that he denied cheating, but he also fought back through civil suits or threatening to sue those who making allegations. There were ample reasons to doubt him, but nobody had solid proof. Then one day he decided to appear on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network and admitted that he had been using several types of performance enhancers throughout most of his career!
Though not a bicycling enthusiast, I felt cheated when I first heard this news. Now I know for sure that Armstrong never inspired me to do anything - I didn't buy anything just because he endorsed it, never donated anything to charity because of him, never even spend time watching him participating in any of those tournaments. But that's how I am - I saw one of the heroes going down and I am sad. I am not just sad, I am angry too because I just learned that he was never a hero, just an illusion. So I am curious, I want to know why.
Lance made it clear during the interview that he did the dope to level the playing field, rather than to get ahead. In doing so, he not only threw himself under the bus, but took the entire sports with him by suggesting that everybody participate in these races do the dirty. On the surface this might seem like a very childish argument, I did it because everybody else was doing it also. But I believe Lance was only being honest. This excuse is no longer a childish argument, it is a big part of who we are nowadays.
We do things, both good and bad (but mostly bad), NOT because that's what we want to do, but because that's what everybody else does. We have found comfort in this mob mentality where immorality becomes the new moral for a particular crowd for the the time being. When we see others ignoring their duties and getting away with it, our natural tendency is to follow them rather than staying on course with our responsibilities. We give bribes because the system demands it; we cheat on taxes because the system allows it; we ignore the speed limit on the roads when we have somebody ahead of us and behind us. When in the right (or is it wrong?) company, we turn from respecter of humans into rapists, thieves and terrorists.
We no longer believe in individual identity; we just want to go with the flow. We no longer have the courage to stand up for the right reasons; we would rather sit with the crowd and avoid being a distraction. So we cheat and backstab to catch up, thus inspiring many more to follow our footsteps. We are afraid of falling behind. Nobody shouts "The king is naked" anymore; whistleblowers are considered anti-social in todays culture.
I have no right to feel cheated or to get angry at Lance Armstrong just because he had decided to own up his mistakes. I am no better than him. My actions definitely not carry the same weight in the eye of the public since I never inspired a nation with a comeback story like he did. But does that make my transgressions anymore justifiable than his? He cheated in a big way because the expectations that put on him also were huge. But how can I justify outcome as the sole measuring cup to judge the severity of a crime? I understand Armstrong, I have been there though in a much smaller scale. Yes the outcomes are different, but the crime is the same. How about you, are you guilty of this crime? Have you ever intentionally put on the appearance of somebody you are not to impress others? Have you ever lied about your credentials to a potential employer?
I think none of us - not the media, not any of the cancer survivors who were inspired by him, none of the sponsors who spent millions of dollars marketing him, not even Oprah - have the right to pass a judgement on him. If anything we are the responsible party - we transform human beings into idols, then expect them to perform according to our expectations. And when they fail, we burn them to make room for new ones. The cycling career of Lance Armstrong might be over, but the cycle keeps rolling - the never-ending loop of humanity putting too much trust in one of them and them failing under pressure. (What I am really interested in is to analyze why he chose to admit his wrongdoings. I think I will need another article to discuss that. That's next.)
"Better to take refuge in the LORD
than to put one’s trust in mortals.
Better to take refuge in the LORD
than to put one’s trust in princes." (Psalm 118:8,9)
(Here's the second part of this article)
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