Dear Editor:
Kudos to you for your Jan. 20 editorial regarding Lance Armstrong and the part played by those of us who willingly ignored the mounting evidence because of a deep need to keep the illusion intact. Your kind of insight is rare. In 63 years, I have witnessed repeatedly, and devastatingly, this "see no evil" phenomenon which overrides normal intelligence whenever we need to protect our ego.
It's been said that our greatest fear is not of death, but of being wrong, and I've found that indeed there is a "rightness stubbornness" at the heart of any prolonged gullibility, because our culture does not make easy the humbleness of admitting that we were duped.
When I was married to an abusive man who portrayed a hail-fellow-well-met persona to others, I saw a world that was more than eager to believe his facade even after his death, and to condemn his drug-addicted sons rather than look for the cause of their behaviour.
Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an upside down world, where evil triumphs over good. It won't change until we give ourselves permission to be wrong - to re-examine our faulty assessments. Or until we all have pots of money to hire a lawyer when people in power can't see the evil that is staring them in the face.
Either way works for me. Maureen Kerr North Vancouver
