book
A Season on the Brink
John Feinstein. A Season on the Brink. (New York: Macmillan, 1986).
Related concepts3 concepts
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. 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.
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Concept
Authority
Authority names who can coordinate action when full agreement is impossible. It becomes important whenever groups must move before every perspective aligns. It helps preserve direction and collective capacity, but can fail when operational power outruns justified recognition or visible consequence. It differs from legitimacy because authority is the capacity to steer; legitimacy is whether that capacity reads as earned and revisable enough to coordinate trust rather than performative compliance.
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Concept
Legitimacy
Legitimacy names the standing that lets authority coordinate without constant coercion. It becomes important when scale, abstraction, or time separate decision-makers from lived consequence. It helps preserve trust and willing participation, but can fail when smooth operation is mistaken for moral standing or when scrutiny is treated as disloyalty. It differs from alignment because legitimacy still invites proportionate inquiry; alignment can bind through belonging signals alone.
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