The Outrage Machine
Crank up the outrage machine and let's point it at somebody today. Who shall we target?
Let's do Lance Armstrong.
"He lied!" Everybody lies. Grow up.
"He took drugs!" It's his body.
"He cheated!" Was everyone else in those races on the level too? Some say if you're at the top level and you're not cheating, you're not trying.
"He hurt cycling!" Almost nobody in the US gave a shit about cycling before Lance Armstrong. There's no question he did more for cycling in the US than anyone has ever done, except for maybe Dave Stoller.
"I gave money to his charity, and now people are saying he's a bad person!" Yes, he's a terrible person who survived cancer and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the cause of defeating the disease. If he's a bad person, I wish there were a lot more bad people like him around.
"He was a role model for children!" Stop idolizing athletes. Everyone has flaws, especially people who dedicate their life to one very difficult thing like athletics. They tend to be very bad at other things because of neglect. Stop expecting them to be well rounded people.
"I can't think of any more reasons to hate Lance Armstrong! But I still do!" Neither can I! When you watch the news, ask yourself "Do I really care?" You'll quickly realize that until they start talking about the weather, it doesn't affect your life at all.
Lance Armstrong is a guy who from all accounts is a very nice person that used his fame and notoriety to raise money for a good cause. He's kind, generous and extremely competitive. He acted shady in a sport that probably required some pretty shady business. I don't know anything about cycling, and I don't really care to know.
If we really want to know whether the rest of the cycling world at the time was doping, who would we ask? There's only one person whose word I would accept or believe.
Lance Armstrong's.
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