Taking Utopia Too Far-The Armstrong Plague

Last year, seven-time Tour De France champion, Lance Armstrong, was finally convicted of blood doping to enhance his cycling performance after almost sixteen years of banned substance abuse spanning from 1996 up until last year. Armstrong not only used banned substances, but had developed an entire system of workers and connections that ferried and distributed the drugs that allowed him to continue to dope without being caught. Any friend, colleague, or teammate that put this system in danger was threatened by Armstrong to stay quiet. According to The Guardian newspaper, Armstrong, “didn’t just attack mountains with vigor, he attacked anyone who threatened to expose the truth of his doping. He comes across less like a cyclist and more like a psychopath.” On this blog, one of my classmates compared Armstrong’s story to Hobbes’s concept of social contracts, but I am instead comparing Armstrong’s downward spiral to Suit’s idea of utopia. Armstrong’s fall from glory is the example of when competition is taken too far. It is the story of a life changed and a reputation ruined in order to achieve success. The question we wonder is, why does Armstrong risk everything for one title? It takes the story of an outcast cyclist to explain it. The idea of fame, acceptance, and glory that is found in a utopia outweighs the consequences of getting caught or hurting others in the process. According to Bernard Suit’s work, The Grasshopper, a new analysis of Aesop’s fable, The Grasshopper and the Ant, hard work and preparation are moralized through the game. The goal is to achieve Utopia, a state of acceptance and fame in Armstrong’s case. The game is worth pursuing to add value to one’s life and to achieve excellence and success that boost self worth and others’ views of you. If this utopia is not achieved, there is disconnect from happiness and reality.

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Suits describes a game as having three main elements, the first one being the prelusory goal, a goal separate from the ultimate victory. The goal for Armstrong is to ride the fifteen hundred miles, so his rational is to dope to do it as quickly as possible. The sense of smart rationality is not there, so the athlete, Armstrong in particular, becomes obsessed with the achievement of Utopia and instead breaks the rules of Suit’s game play. Rationalization is a key element to game play as it helps to decide plays and strategy. So, when the athlete does not play fairly, all sense of morality is lost. This contradicts Suit’s second element, which is the constitutive rules that try and prevent the most efficient way to achieve the prelusory goal. They do this by establishing a set of rules or a social contract that binds players to a set of standards. They are usually not welcomed by the athletes as they make the game  more difficult, but are essential to a fair game. This is where the third rule connects, which states the importance of the athlete’s acceptance and obedience of the constitutive rules, or their “lusory attitude.” Armstrong breaks all these elements in his decision to blood dope. He is so drawn the to the Utopia he seeks and the prelusory goal he wants to achieve, he has no lusory attitude to obey the contracts of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The morality Suits defines as sportsmanship is lost, and a wholesome image of a humble athlete is portrayed only to media camera lenses.

In the end, the legacy of cancer survivor and cyclist legend Lance Armstrong are crushed, because of the path that was chosen to get to the fame and fortune. Sponsorships, respect, and reputation were lost for Armstrong, because he was so involved with the Utopia he craved. The morals of sports and the true reason to play games to have fun and compete healthily are lost. Armstrong learns the hard way what cheating can truly do to a man, and instead his life is made into an example of what cheating and the lack of rationality can do to even a world-class athlete.