Concept
Winning as Excuse
Winning as excuse names how a decisive outcome can be asked to launder cost, cruelty, or illegitimacy in method. It becomes urgent when records, trophies, or titles are used to end arguments about how people were treated along the way.
Winning as excuse names how a decisive outcome can be asked to launder cost, cruelty, or illegitimacy in method. It becomes urgent when records, trophies, or titles are used to end arguments about how people were treated along the way. It preserves the prestige of the result while postponing judgment about desert and harm. It differs from celebrating excellence because celebration need not claim ethical indemnity; it differs from accountability because winning is offered as the answer rather than as one fact among others.
Appears in chapters
Thinkers & sources2 thinkers
Person
John Feinstein
Sportswriter whose Season on the Brink made Bob Knight's method a durable public story about winning and cost.
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Organization
United States Anti-Doping Agency
U.S. anti-doping authority whose Armstrong ban and reasoned decision strip winning of its moral cover.
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