No legitimate winners

The thing about claiming something like exceptionalism, or being the greatest, is that you have to back it; otherwise, you become another narcissist.

If you back it via cheating or political pressure, then that simply exposes the truth that winning at any cost is OK. 

Any stand we take comes with a price. If you stand for integrity, as I do, you will be tested. And tested. And tested.

That is the way of it.

At the point of the test, what do you choose? 

Standing for exceptionalism, for being the greatest and the most powerful, means you have chosen to be publicly measured against the validity of your claim.

When the world watches and finds the claim built on bent rules, it sees the claim for what it is: a lie.

Not greatness or exceptionalism at all. 

Greatness doesn’t come from claiming it. It comes from how you act. Every day. At every choice point. True greatness is rarely found where the trumpets of greatness blow the loudest. It is found when people do great things by choice, without the need to be recognised. 

But in this timeline, that is not the path rewarded by capitalism. Lying, cheating, political pressure, pandering, and blackmail win the game.

The winner thinks they have won. What they have done is taken. Again. Exploited. Again.

And those who watch the stand for exceptionalism exploit, again, get madder. 

This pattern repeated, everywhere. By those who wield political and economic power.

The call is for the game on the field, the respite from the tidal wave of exploitation, to be on a level playing field. When that is taken away, when the politically powerful interfere, there are no legitimate winners.

Published July 7th 2026. Photo taken July 7th 2022