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Alberto Ceja

Ms. Figueroa

Senior English

10 March 2019

Blind Ambition in Today’s Society

Is blind ambition a good thing because it helps to accomplish any goal? Blind ambition is

a great trait to have but it can prevent people from seeing what is happening around them and

possibly hurt the people around them. In Macbeth, Macbeth committed evil acts because of his

blind ambition which was powered by the sisters. The sisters told Macbeth that he is to be king,

so with that information he would do whatever it takes. The ambition drove him to kill King

Duncan so he can become king and after kill Banquo to remain king. Macbeth’s universal theme

of blind ambition is also seen in sports, today’s politics, and in history.

Blind ambition can be seen in sports such as professional athletes using steroids or teams

setting up bounties. Marion Jones, an American former world champion for track and field, was

stripped of her titles after admitting steroids use. From the NPR article, “The three-time gold

medal winner has now pleaded guilty Friday to charges connected to steroid use in a federal

court in White Plains, N.Y. — after persistently denying that she ever used performance-

enhancing drugs” (In depth: Cheating in Sports 2). She wanted the extra strength to win

championships even though steroids are not allowed. In the NFL, a whole team was guilty of

setting up bounties to hurt opponents. According to ESPN, “The New Orleans Saints were found

to have operated a bounty system in which players were paid bonuses for, among other things,

hard hits and deliberately injuring opposing players. The system was in place from 2009 -- the
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season the Saints won the Super Bowl -- to 2011...” (Saints Bounty Scandal 1). The Saints were

motivated to win a championship and did not care if the players were injured. Which is blind

ambition because they would injure people to win a game which lead them to a Super Bowl win.

All in all, it is showed that even professional athletes will do anything just win.

Additionally, the New England Patriots were in two scandals that would benefit them

from having an advantage against their opponents. In 2007, the New England Patriots were

accused of videotaping the New York Jets defensive signals during a game. According to this

article, “As a former Patriots assistant under Bill Belichick, New York head coach Eric Mangini

was well aware New England had a practice of videotaping opponents’ hand signals to gain a

competitive advantage” (Brewington 3). They knew it was not allowed in the NFL, but they

decided to risk it because they knew it was an advantage. Another example of the Patriots having

blind ambition to have an advantage against their opponents was the Deflate gate. In 2015, Tom

brady was accused of using a deflated football during AFC Championship game against the

colts. According to the article, “...but after the second-half kickoff, game officials replaced the 12

balls that were used in the first half with 12 backup balls that been approved before game time,

which drew questions” (ESPN). As can be seen, even big organization are sometimes found in

these scandals because of their blind ambition to win a game.

In addition, a very common example of blind ambition is fighters using banned

supplements to perform better. An example is Jon Jones an MMA fighter for the UFC who’s

been suspended using banded supplements for performance enhancement in 2016. In the article

states that, “Jones is flagged by the USADA for a potential doping violation and is pulled from

his UFC 200 main event bout with Cormier” (Johnston 27). Jon Jones perhaps wanted the win

so bad and did everything to win his fight against Cormier. A more recent example is TJ
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Dillashaw testing positive for EPO use. The article states, “The United States Anti-Doping

Agency has suspended former UFC champion TJ Dillashaw for two years for testing positive for

recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) before a flyweight title fight against Henry Cejudo on

Jan. 19 in New York” (Okamoto 1). In this fight he had to stepped down to 125 for a chance to

be double champ so maybe a lot was in line for him so he need the extra strength. In conclusion,

these two fighters were caught using performance enhancements in their biggest fight in their

career we can assume that they wanted the win so bad they would do anything to have a greater

advantage against their opponents.

Furthermore, blind ambition can also be seen in politics such as Trump building a wall or

back in 2017 when Kim Jong-un threaten the U.S. with nuclear weapons. Since the election,

Trump promised to build a wall and the idea of it divided the country. Trump states a wall at the

border between the U.S. and Mexico would stop people from entering the United States illegally.

According to an article, “Trump’s “wall” ignores the geography of the border and the reality of

how Mexico and the U.S. are connected economically and how building more barriers will create

cultural divisions” (Why does Donald Trump want to build a wall? 7) Trump ignores the

backlash from it and is driven by his ambition to ‘Make America Great Again.’ Another example

is Kim Jong-un threating the U.S. with nuclear weapons which is extremely dangerous for both

countries. This article states, “North Korea wants to be taken seriously as a military power of the

first rank. The only way in which it can achieve that ambition is through acquiring nuclear

weapons” (Bisley 14). Kim Jong-un was not thinking clearly when he mentioned nuclear

weapons. After all, politics have important people driven by their blind ambition which

sometimes can be dangerous.

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In addition, even throughout history world leaders were driven by their ambition like

Hitler killing Jews or Nixon’s Watergate scandal. In the 1940s, Hitler viewed Jews differently

and thought no Jews would benefit Germany. According to this article, “Hitler compared the

Jews to germs. He stated that diseases cannot be controlled unless you destroy their causes. The

influence of the Jews would never disappear without removing its cause, the Jew, from our

midst, he said. These radical ideas paved the way for the mass murder of the Jews in the 1940s”

(Radicalization of Hitler’s and antisemitism 2). Hitler viewed Jews as a disease and thought they

should be eliminated. Another example was when President Nixon was in office and breaking

into the Watergate headquarters. According to History, “In May 1972, as evidence would later

show, members of Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (known derisively as CREEP)

broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters, stole copies of top-

secret documents and bugged the office’s phones” (The Watergate Scandal 1). Nixon wanted to

be re-elected as president, so he did everything in his power to do which was breaking into the

Watergate headquarters. As can be seen world leaders throughout history have done awful things

to accomplish their goal.

Throughout history there has been evil world leaders like Adolf Hitler who all were

driven from their blind ambition such as Joseph Stalin and Osama Bin Laden. Starting with

Joseph Stalin a Soviet dictator, who his Red Army helped defeat Nazi Germany during World

War II. According to the article, “Stalin forced rapid industrialization and the collectivization of

agriculture land, resulting in millions dying from famine while others were sent to camps” Even

though he helped get rid of Nazis he killed lots of innocent people because he did things his way.

Another evil world leader is Osama Bin Laden who also did things their way. In conclusion,
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these people did things they believed in and were driven by their ambition the thought of it might

be a bad thing never came up because they were blind of the consequences.

Moreover, like the water gate scandal there has been many more political scandals such

as the Whisky Ring and the Teapot Dome. In the 1920s, a former Secretary of the Interior, was

charged with accepting bribes of oil companies in exchange for exclusive rights to drill for oil on

federal land. According to this article, “The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked

Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal

government” (History). This scandal would benefit the Secretary in some way which was driven

by his ambition using his power as senator to bribe. Also, in the 1800’s General John McDonald

began an effort to raise money for Ulysses S. Grant and other Republican candidates. The article

states, “..., the ring eventually involved whiskey distillers, agents of the Internal Revenue

Service, Treasury clerks and others, all of whom conspired to siphon off liquor tax revenues into

campaign coffers and individual pockets” (History). In conclusion, people with power will take

advantage of it and do something illegal and not see the consequences.

Macbeth’s theme of blind ambition has been in sports, today’s politics, and throughout

history. These examples of people showed that blind ambition can turn out to be dangerous for

you or for others. This relates to Macbeth because he did evil things to become king just like the

New Orleans Saints injuring other players just to win a championship or the New England Spy

gate. Also UFC fighters being caught using performance enhancements to perform better against

their opponents. Even Nixon breaking into the Democratic National Committee Watergate

headquarters to get re-elected as president again. A person who has a blind ambition are usually

ignoring the negative effects from it such as Trump ignoring the outcomes from building the
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wall. Overall, we can see how Macbeth’s from the 11th century blind ambition can happen to

anyone today.
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Works Cited

“Saints Bounty Scandal.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/nfl/topics/_/page/new-

orleans-saints-bounty-scandal.

Editors, History.com. “Watergate Scandal.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct.

2009, www.history.com/topics/1970s/watergate

“Why Did Hitler Hate the Jews?” Anne Frank Website, 5 Mar. 2019,

www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/why-did-hitler-hate-jews/.

Bbc.co.uk. (2019). Why does Donald Trump want to build a wall? - CBBC Newsround. [online]

Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46811167 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].

The Conversation. (2019). Kim Jong-un's nuclear ambition: what is North Korea's endgame?.

[online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/kim-jong-uns-nuclear-ambition-what-is-north-

koreas-endgame-83428 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].

Tedford, Deborah. “Marion Jones Admits Using Steroids.” NPR, NPR, 5 Oct. 2007,

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15026895.