Cheating

Lance Armstrong has come out and admitted that he cheated during his career as a professional cyclist. He used performance enhancing medical procedures to give him an illegal edge over his opponents in such events as the Tour de France. He is being roundly condemned for the deleterious impact that his actions are having on the sport.

The use of drugs to enhance the performance of competitors in various sports is a growing problem  that the authorities are doing their utmost to tackle.

Ironically, there are numerous other activities that people use to give them an unfair advantage in their activities. Society does not even recognize many of them. Very few realize that some traders use computer systems to give them an unfair advantage in making money on the stock market. Using computers to advantage is no difference in principle than using drugs and medical procedures.

The ability of rich people to use the leverage of their money to enhance their off-shore  bank accounts is a common practice that authorities cannot tackle But this practice does not receive the media attention celebrities attract.

Of course, it is not only people who misuse resources to gain an unfair advantage. Powerful countries have historically done this by using their military might as the means to plunder the natural resources of weaker countries.

Society has over the ages drawn a line in the sand over which only the powerful can venture. The masses have to recognize this constraint or pay the price. Armstrong is learning that lesson the hard way. But his mistake has done little harm compared to the selfish human made disasters that have and continue to devastate the environment as well as the lives of many, without the derision that has been served up to Armstrong.