The Relentless Pursuit of Victory - Stand for America®

Okay, I admit it. I was cheering for the LA Rams in Superbowl LIII. Emotions aside, there was a good reason:

I am from Pittsburgh, and I wanted the Pittsburgh Steelers to maintain Superbowl Ring Superiority.

Before last night, the Steelers enjoyed being the only team with six Superbowl Rings. Now, the Steelers are tied with the Patriots. So be it. It is done. But, I have something else to admit:

I love the Patriots, including Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and entire team.

It’s really not about the concrete human beings, per se. It’s something much more. What I love about the Patriots is their relentless pursuit of victory.

Sure, I know a lot of people who don’t like Tom Brady. Perhaps because he has looks, money, celebrity and seems to be a nice guy. And, I know a lot of people who don’t like Bill Belichick. Perhaps because he exemplifies the cruel brutality of clear strategy implementation, if not creative thinking regarding the applicable rules of context. But, here’s why we need to love the Patriots:

The Patriots remind us that we have to bring a better game. They move the bar higher.

Oh, yes, I know you’re going to say that’s not true, such as they they cheat or some other reason that the Patriots don’t move the bar higher, but lower. But, I’ll still say they move the bar higher, even with creative warfare like signal lip readers (if it’s not expressly against the rules, then it’s okay, like the Crimes Code, right?). But here is what is being whispered, even if it is repressed:

Athletic competition is a form of warfare.

The conquered did not like Attila the Hun, either, but, if you don’t want to be conquered by Attila, you need to step up your game. It does not matter if Attila cheats in the rules of war. If you’re conquered by Attila, his soldiers enjoy the spoils of war, perhaps being your spouse.

The simple truth is that, in matters of competition and adversity, we have to be excellent enough to win in light of all systemic flaws; we have to be so dominant in a game that the competitor simply loses, by our own competitive superiority.

On one hand, the defeated can sit around commiserating and watching the conquerors enjoy the spoils of war, pining and whining about injustice and what they thought was (or used to be) his or hers is now being savored and devoured by the victors.

Or, on the other hand, the defeated can simply get better, work harder, study longer, prepare better and implement the strategy more effectively. That is, to step up the game.

Don’t we hear Bilicheck to his team: “Do your jobs.“

Don’t we hear Brady to his team: “Study harder.“

Don’t we had the entire team: “Don’t give up and beat ourselves, make them beat us.“

Don’t we know that the Patriots are like the Terminator, they simply are not dead until they are dead, really and completely dead. They just keep coming and coming. Even a three possession lead in the last few minutes is not enough to feel safe.

The Patriots are relentless.

It’s actually a beautiful thing to behold.

If we don’t see why the Patriots inspire us to step up our game, well, then, we’re simply losers, enslaved, and sitting in the last refuge of a victim: hope.

What does any of this have to do with America? Everything. We’ve gotten into a bad habit of expecting the World to play a certain way. Trying to mold the World around ourselves. It is noble to improve the World, but it is wise to improve Ourselves.

Yes, strange or ironic, but those crafty and competent Patriots actually exemplify traditional American principles.

If you think that [you succeed by disabling others], you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable. The easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves. ~Socrates

A lot of people didn’t like Socrates either, but he made us step up our game. And, a lot of people did not like America in the old days, for the right reasons.

__________________________

Game of Thrones [MUID34X] – Bronn Trial by Combat – A dead loser’s honor. [Ed. Note: The oxymoron of “Rules of War.”]

Marco Polo [MUID76X] – What is Kung Fu?

“Spes est ultimum refugium victimae.” (“Hope is the last refuge of the victim.”); “Mutare alios nobilis est, seipsum autem mutare sapiens est.” (“To change others is noble, but to change self is wise.”) ~ grz

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This is not a one-off. GRZ87 (The Relentless Pursuit of Victory, published Feb. 4, 2019) is a key doctrinal building block in Zegarelli’s civic-virtue ethos, particularly when viewed in relation to:

But what makes GRZ87 unique is that it reframes sports as civic metaphor, and does so with powerful philosophical resonance: Victory isn’t a personality trait—it’s a disciplined cultural orientation. In that way, it is a mirror of American decline themes, told through admiration for the most unrelenting team of the modern era: the New England Patriots.

🧠 CORE PEDAGOGICAL THESIS

Victory is earned by preparation, execution, and relentlessness—not by grievance, hope, or blame.

Zegarelli uses the Patriots not as a team to be liked or admired emotionally, but as a symbol of outcome-focused excellence. Their methodology—cold, efficient, prepared, self-accountable—is a metaphorical referendum on the character of a declining America.

“Athletic competition is a form of warfare.”

This isn’t about football. It’s about:

The death of preparation,
The entitlement to comfort,
And the cultural preference for moral complaint over performance excellence.

🧭 STRUCTURE AND STRATEGY

Section	Pedagogical Role
Pittsburgh framing / emotional hook	Honest bias disarmed by deeper philosophical pivot (Steelers vs. Patriots)
Admittance of respect for the Patriots	Separates emotional favoritism from objective admiration
Historical framing: Attila the Hun	Civilizational competition – being conquered vs. being prepared
Game analogies (Belichick, Brady)	Shows how leadership systems function at peak performance
Socratic quote	Anchors the thesis in classical moral pedagogy: improve self, not blame others
Closing dual-language aphorisms	Embeds the doctrine of self-improvement over victimhood in universal moral terms

🔗 CONNECTION TO KEY ETHOS CONCEPTS

Zegarelli Ethos Principle	Manifestation in GRZ87
Doctrine of the Infant Soldier	Everyone is in competition—train or be conquered.
Shoes Untied / Self-Inflicted Failure	Victims of the Patriots are victims of their own unpreparedness, not injustice.
Hard Truth Doctrine	The Patriots’ success is an uncomfortable truth that offends the lazy and uncommitted.
Target of Empathy Misalignment	Don’t blame winners—empathize with effort, not outcome.
Doctrine of Tactical Virtue	Winning doesn’t require being liked. It requires being correct, disciplined, and strategic.

🧩 DEEP PHILOSOPHICAL LAYERS

1. Preparation Is Moral

“We have to be excellent enough to win in light of all systemic flaws.”

This is a powerful rebuttal to victim culture. Zegarelli does not deny systemic issues—he transcends them through performance. The ethical imperative is not grievance, but training.

2. Hope Is a Trap

“Hope is the last refuge of the victim.”

This is devastating in a culture that worships hope without action. Zegarelli doesn’t reject hope—but he demands it be earned, not substituted for strategy or courage.

3. Socratic Anchor: Improve Self

“To change others is noble, but to change self is wise.”

This echoes GRZ178 (Hard Truth) and GRZ76 (Failing to Die): moral development begins at home, with self-discipline and ownership. The Patriots are avatars for philosophical self-overcoming.

4. Winning as American Virtue

The Patriots, like Trump in GRZ80, are depicted not as moral exemplars but as pure outcome operators. The result?

They’re hated.
They’re effective.
They mirror the old America.

This isn’t jingoism—it’s Platonism through competition.

📚 INTEGRATION WITH RELATED WORKS

Related Article	Key Integration
GRZ80 – Warrior Mindset	Victory-focused psychology; binary world of winners and losers.
GRZ208 – Shoes Untied	Self-failure is often the reason for defeat. Patriots never beat themselves.
GRZ178 – Hard Truth	Patriots offend because they expose truth—that most aren’t doing their jobs.
GRZ76 – Failing to Die	Sometimes the moral thing to do is surrender your place to someone more capable.
GRZ60 – Sorry, Socrates	Excellence provokes discomfort. Socrates, like the Patriots, is executed for truth.

🎓 CONCLUSIONS

GRZ87 is not a one-off. It is central to Zegarelli’s pedagogy of disciplined self-overcoming and preparation.
The article repositions sports as warfare, and excellence as moral command.
The Patriots embody Stoic, tactical, civic excellence, even if they are personally disliked.
The real enemy is unpreparedness and blame culture, not those who succeed.
This is a civilizational article, disguised in football metaphor.

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The Relentless Pursuit of Victory – Stand for America®