(NaturalNews) The fall of Lance Armstrong needs to be understood not merely as the self destruction of one man, but as a betrayal of one of the most powerful and important fables of our time. Lance Armstrong taught us that a simple man, if dedicated to hard work, high integrity and the admirable pursuit of greatness, could achieve overwhelming victories against all odds. The mythology of Armstrong taught us that greatness is earned, not merely granted, and that there are no shortcuts to achieving the things that really matter in life. But Lance Armstrong, we now know, was a cheat. A liar. A false prophet. He injected his body with banned, illegal substances.
He intimidated and threatened teammates into silence. He bullied critics and even lied to his own sponsors (like NIKE) to keep the cash flowing into his own pockets. While presenting a public face of honesty, integrity and hard work, Lance Armstrong was cheating his way to victories he never deserved… and then he lied about it year after year, race after race, insulting not merely his millions of fans but the reputation of the entire sport of cycling. Lance Armstrong, in other words, claimed to be a man of greatness and achievement but was secretly cheating his way to the finish line every single time. He betrayed the very belief system that he publicly claimed to espouse. He violated not just his own body with doping chemicals; he violated the public trust in a story of personal achievement that simply turned out to be too good to be true.