Olympic Sobering

Mark Alexander provides some necessary perspective on the Olympics. There is something uncomfortable about the internationalism of the Olympics, best captured in the Visa commercial which gives the aura of a world coming together in spite of differences. But, as I have written here before, if one group believes in oppression and state control over the lives of individuals, a second party believes in the primacy and political rule of a religion that is contrary to that of the entire Western world, and a third large bloc believes in both the freedom of and the importance of faith, an ordered society coupled with a limited government to enshrine liberty, and the sanctity of human life, it hardly seems worthwhile to talk about overcoming differences.

In case anyone was wondering, European socialists, the Chinese communists, elements of the American left, imperial Russians, and autocratic two-bits in Africa and South America fall into the first category, the second consists of those nations, organizations, tribes, and other various bandits that adhere to radical versions of Islam whose evangelism is quite brutal, and the last group is American conservatives (whether they style themselves this way or not), most notably large political elements in European nations, certain South American (and very few African movements), and the precious Eastern Europeans. Of course, these lists are not conclusive, but they establish the frame of the house I am building.

I was especially uncomfortable with this Olympics, because it was portrayed to the world as a high-gloss, clean, proud affair, when in reality it was a facade forced together by the hands of a ruthless government, all dissent and unpleasantness crushed andswept away (Alexander notes that a large fake skyscraper was erected to hide tenement housing from major highways). Freedom movements in China were cast as grinches trying to ruin China's special day, when still Christianity is surpressed, Tibet is occupied, China aggressively grows its military, and its agents act with arrogance even on foreign soil.

I am pleased to see the next Summer games will be held in London, a city whose heritage is much prouder, including the parliament that ended the African slave trade: let us hope, however, that London has not degraded into a city that would make Mao proud.