The current interest in Lance Amstrong tied in neatly with an old blog I was reading by Aaron Swartz.
One thing that Armstrong said several times is that it did not feel like he was cheating. He was just doing what was necessary to win.
Of course he was - no-one ever does wrong without some rationalisation in their own mind to justify there actions. This was the point that Swartz was making. Even Hitler thought he was doing the right thing by his country and the world.
The other connection to the same concept is one that we have talked about in our family, having 3 children at school, is anti-bullying campaigns. The major issue is that most (all?) bullies don't see their actions as bullying. It is just teasing or play or joking and the other person is not entering into the spirit of it.
We have an (ex-)friend who once said that she suspects that she was a bit of a bully at school. Forty years to come to this realisation and everyone else at the table was thinking "what do you mean 'was'".
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