Warships armed with guided weapons nearby; 33,000 “security” men surrounding the site; blocked roads; officials whisked like Kremlin apparatchiks through red traffic lights while locals fret in traffic jams; residents asked to leave the city; and now panic about the inability of the city’s main airport to handle a fraction of the visitors expected? Log jams, road jams, air jams and jam on it for the officials and hangers-on.
A developing country? Part of a report on a coup d’etat? No, news dribbling out about the London Olympics.
I have nothing against the idea of the Olympics. I am an Epicurean, and Epicurus, like all ancient Greeks, enjoyed the spectacle, I’m sure. I will watch the Olympics on television from a safe distance. But all this this shows, if anything shows, that:
1. Al Quaeda has actually won the war. The only hugely expanding industry is the “security” industry, and the biggest casualty are shrinking human rights. This is a very dangerous development and has gained a momentum of its own. We can never re-assign the “Security guards” to proper, productive jobs. Instead, they will be a law unto themselves and in future chase off abroad and hire as many prostitutes as they want, and bully the rest of us.
2. The Olympics have become big business, involving big corporations (with associated bribery and corruption), and athletes whose incentive is now money. As someone who will be asked to pay for all this razzamatazz I wish to lodge a public protest! It is a futile protest, I know.
“Bread and circuses” still work to distract the populace from who is really winning. Rant over.
“Epicurus, like all ancient Greeks, enjoyed the spectacle.”
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There’s one translation of Epicurus’ which quotes him saying:
“Ya know, this Greek obsession to compete over everything from hand-wrestling, to nose-scratching, to punching the other guy silly, to long-distance spitting of watermelon seeds, to jumping high over stuff– isn’t as exciting as a lot of chordates seem to think it is. Still, to keep my Garden tranquil, I play the games, so to speak.”
Yes, o.k, you win! Maybe he stayed away and smelt the roses. But there is nothing wrong with competitive sport as long as people don’t take it too seriously and forget about the other really important things going on. i went to a school where sport was all that mattered, so I left the school highly disillusioned. But it has its place, a balanced place.
Yes, you’re right, too. It’s where any one aspect of life fits in the larger picture that matters. It’s just that I’ve lived in very unbalanced times with regard to the place of sports. I’m trying to imagine Epicurus in an arm-wrestling Olympics — and, yes, I’d cheer for him.
Latest new is that ‘they ‘ are putting short range missiles on the roofs of blocks of flats in East London in order to shoot down any long range missiles fired at us by ‘the enemy’.
Best to keep out of London this July!
And it’s supposed to be a sporting occasion! Osama 1, British Government 0.