Winning! "everybody loves a winner", because "second place is the first loser" as the saying goes. The struggle to win in cultures around the world says allot about the human species. It means survival, and coming out on top. It seems to say that we are a success. We worked hard and if we work hard enough, we will one day win. "Never, Never give up" is what Winston Churchill urged us in our struggle to win.Winning is what the Olympics is all about.
Winning is more than just survival and being the best; it makes us feel good as well, and people take notice if we win, which makes us feel good too. How about winning if we never competed? Certainly that is pleasure without pain, which is the goal if we crave a hedonistic lifestyle. We win and there is no pain; the pain that we would certainly experience if we actually had to perform some type of act to become proficient enough to win.
Apparently, this type of utilitarianism is precisely the type of hedonism a woman in St. Louis was trying to achieve when she entered the race at the very end to come in number one. According to one published report she came in even before the lead bicycle escort. Of course it didn't take long before she was found out and stripped of the win. " I've been robbed!" she might have thought, when the feeling of elation of the win evaporated with the looks of befuddlement and disgust that most certainly would have been present on the faces of race officials. I first wondered if she truly thought she would get away with it, but then I read that she has tried this before. Same marathon, just last year..oh and she only was able to manage a third place finish that time. "Practice-Makes-Perfect" they say. She was also invited to run in the Boston marathon, until, of course, the unfortunate news leaked out. Boston quickly rolled up the 'Welcome' red carpet when they were notified.
She could have thought that this slight bending of the winning rule would not hurt anyone; the second place finisher could still be happy, right?
We might never understand the reason behind her actions, but what does this type of attitude tell us about the society that we live in? What is the underlying dynamic?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/woman-stripped-of-marathon-win-didnt-actually-run-in-race/ar-AAba06k
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