A World of Adversaries. A World of Enemies.

Some things stick with you.

I was in my 20s during the Summer Olympics of 2000, and I remember seeing an advertisement for the Olympic Games.  It was one of a series, and they are all pretty great, but the first one in this clip – titled “Adversary” –  is the one that stuck with me:

The voice you are hearing in that ad is Robin Williams.  Here is a transcript of what he is saying:

You are my adversary, but you are not my enemy.
For your resistance gives me strength,
your will gives me courage,
your spirit ennobles me.
And though I aim to defeat you,
should I succeed, I will not humiliate you.
Instead, I will honor you.
Because without you, I am a lesser man.

I have never been more than a mediocre athlete.  But one of the great things about sports is that each competition is its own world, such that even mediocre athletes have the opportunity to experience competition – go to any pickup basketball game at the park and you will experience what I am talking about.  And, of course, sports is itself a re-creation of the part of life that we spend in competition with others, so even those of us who don’t compete as athletes nonetheless experience competition.  

I don’t recall exactly how I thought about my competitors before I saw this ad.  But I do know that, ever since I saw it, it has been how I try to think about them.  And I know that it has made me a much better competitor.  And let me be clear about what I mean.  It is not only that it has made me a more honorable competitor (although that would be enough).  It is also that it has allowed me to get much more out of competition.  Competing against an adversary makes you far stronger and smarter than competing against an enemy, because you cannot merely dismiss an adversary.  There is something about them that stays with you, something that prevents you from making the mistake of becoming insular, of becoming so enamored by yourself – so enamored by your own resident ideas and your own resident strength – that you cut yourself off from anything that could teach you something that you don’t already know.

Earlier this week, I saw a new ad for Nike:

The voice you are hearing in that ad is Willem Defoe.  Willem Defoe indisputably has one of the top 10 most interesting voices in any set of circumstances, but it is especially interesting here, because he is using ⅓ to ⅔ of his Green Goblin voice throughout the ad.  Willem Defoe played that character in two Spider Man movies, and the character is a personality split between a good (or, at least, goodish) guy and his alter ego the Green Goblin, who is the bad guy in the movies.  The Nike ad spins on a similar axis.  We get elements that we recognize as elements that we idolize – stunning visuals of competitors, a soaring orchestra and chorus.  And we get elements that we recognize as elements that we shun – selfishness, disdain, mania.  And they all spin around the refrain, posed as a question – “Am I a bad person?”  

It is, ultimately, an argument about what it means to compete.  And, yes, there is something interesting in the idea that the space of competition is a space where we upend some of the principles that we follow in other parts of our life.  Competition is a place where we get to be maniacal, obsessive, deceptive.  Anyone who has watched three year olds play soccer has seen that dynamic at work, as the kids try to figure out why it is okay in this instance to steal the ball.

But here is the problem.  The ad is particularly interested in how we treat each other when competing.  All of these other principles just get cameo appearances, but the ad returns over and over again to an argument about how we should relate to our competitors:

I have no empathy….
I don’t respect you….
I have no sense of compassion….
I want to take what’s yours and never give it back.
What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.

Moreover, across the entire 90 second ad and the entire list of elements, Willem Defoe laughs exactly twice.  Once when declaring “I don’t respect you” and again when declaring “I have no sense of compassion.”  That laugh is a tell — the ad knows that this is the place where it is veering into the most serious transgression against what has come before. This contempt for your competitor as your enemy. This hatred for your competitor as your enemy. This desire to destroy your competitor as your enemy. This is the heart of the ad, and it is the heart of darkness.

“Am I a bad person?”  The ad answers its own question with its title card “Winning isn’t for everyone.” — in other words, “Yes, I am a bad person, because being a bad person is how you win.”  

The “Adversary” ad was made for the 2000 Olympics.  Someone who was born when that ad debuted is today roughly the age that I was when I saw it.  Today, they are seeing this Nike ad instead.

And some things stick with you, for good or ill.