I just finished watching the entire Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey. I am one of those foolish people that believed Lance Armstrong even when the USADA came out against him and he decided not to fight back. Stupidly I thought he had just gotten tired of justifying himself and so it was easier for him to give up the good fight rather and move on. To say I am disappointed is a significant understatement.
I am usually not this gullible. In fact, I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of character. I had read Armstrong's book "It's Not About the Bike" which detailed his courageous fight with testicular and inevitably other forms of cancer. I was inspired by his unwillingness to give in and to rage against this disease. He was in my books a hero of sorts.
And now this. I don't believe Armstrong's mea culpa. Authenticity seemed to be lacking with his statements and as well, his body language did not support his tale. During his narrative I found myself dumbfounded on a couple of occasions and rewound to ensure that I had heard his treatises correctly.
When asked by Oprah as to whether he felt or knew he was cheating he said: It's not cheating when it is levelling the playing field. Huh? So as long as everybody else is doing it then it's OK? Does this mean in business if all the vendors are offering bribes and other "incentives" to obtain business, it's OK for you to do so as well? Can you imagine standing in front of a judge and have as your defence "Well, everybody else is doing it, so even though it is against the law, I'm no worse than anybody else!" Have you ever tried using that reasoning with a police officer if stopped for speeding? "Gee, officer, I was just going as fast as everybody else." See how that works for you.
What's right and wrong doesn't change just because others are doing it. Lance Armstrong was not doping because of some noble cause which would perhaps provide some justification for throwing ethics to the wind. He did it for himself and only for himself. His need to win and show himself to be better than anyone else is not remotely a justification for cheating. And let's get this straight -- it was not levelling the playing field. It was out and out cheating on a grand scale.
Which brings me to his statements about winning at all cost. This is where he felt perhaps he should be absolved because the cancer made him do it. For those of you who saw the interview, this was the point in time when you could have picked my jaw up off the floor. He said that he wasn't a jerk or a bully prior to the cancer (although anecdotes from others say differently) and he didn't have the attitude of win at all costs prior to the cancer. So ergo, if he didn't have the cancer he wouldn't have proceeded down the path he had. But here's the rub. He was doping prior to having the cancer and about a few minutes before this bizarre revelation he had said that he was always a fighter, relentless and ruthless. So, please, if you are going to try to rationalize your ethical breach, can you remember back a few minutes, because you have to string your lies together to give them any veracity.
As far as I am concerned Lance Armstrong is a classical narcissist (Narcissism is a generalized personality trait characterized by egotism, vanity, conceit, or selfishness....Wikipedia) and as much as I would wish there is redemption for this type of personality, I am sorry to report there is not, when it is as extreme as witnessed during his attempt at absolution.
I am reading a book right now called the "Wisdom of Psychopaths" by Kevin Dutton, so maybe I'm a little jaded right now. But what I continually see is this absolute disregard for the truth and ethical behaviour that makes you sometimes wonder if you are the only one who believes in doing the right thing. Recently in Toronto, we've had the Director of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) resign because he plagiarized in an article he wrote and now it seems that he plagiarized his way to his career, including in his PhD thesis.
I feel that Lance Armstrong did not need an Oprah interview. He should have gone on the Dr. Phil show, where Dr. Phil would have said "What were you thinking?"Well, Lance, you obviously weren't thinking and you deserve every sanction you get. No excuses, rationalizations or redemption for you. Sorry just doesn't cut it!
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