David Ferguson <
[email protected]> wrote in
news:
[email protected]:
> On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:40:17 +0000 (UTC), Stupid Newbie
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>Yes, some of Armstrong's grudges are
>>understandable--against his former Cofidis team management,
>>or Lemond. But some of them seem just cases where he takes
>>a remark or gesture out of context to invented a 'slight'
>>or insult, just for self- motivation; a form of lying to
>>oneself, or it seems to me.
>>
>>
>
> So what? It's no crime to be a skeptical and suspicious
> person. Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame
> on me. There are a lot of people that way. If I count on
> you and you let me down then get the hell off. He's got
> enough wheel suckers pretending to be his friends that he
> doesn't need more. Cancer is a ***** and people bail left
> and right. If you live through it and those types of people
> come into your life you can recognize them and you don't
> put them in your "circle".
>
> But I guarantee you this. If you are in that circle there
> is nothing he wouldn't do for you.
I'm not talking about him being angry with people who've
attacked him, or questioned his integrity, or who abandoned
him during his cancer. My point is that part of his self-
motivation program seems to be taking someone else's comments
or guestures out of context, and 'spinning' them in his own
mind into a personal attack or a slight, creating a grudge
out of, well, not much. All to build up a "I'll show 'em!!"
anger which he feeds off of in his preparation.
That's not the worst personality trait in the world, but
it does get old after a while, and yes, it's a form of
dishonesty. We all say things to others, sometimes even to
compliment them, and later realize that there's another
interpretation of what we said that might not be
complimentary. Most normal people recognize this, and think,
"hey, they didn't mean it that way". But if Armstrong can
twist what you said or did into an insult or slight for him
to get angry over, that's what he'll do.
The other thing that Armstrong does which gets old is his
Horatio Alger routine. Listening to him talk, Jan Ullrich
is the one with the talent, while Armstrong has the smarts,
and hard work and preparation. Excuse me? Armstrong is
something of a genetic freak himself, and may be, all things
considered, may actually be more naturally gifted than Jan.
Certainly he outperforms Ullrich in almost every category.