Maybe like you, I go back and forth on what to make of these Olympics. Admittedly, it's fun to
pile on China as the 2008 summer games approach, and more specifically, as the torch makes its way around the globe. There are a lot of truths about China that are coming to light that otherwise seem to have been ignored by the media and the public in general. And I think that's a good thing.
But at the same time, I have the feeling that maybe politics and national interests should be left behind. Maybe the focus should rest squarely on the competition of the best athletes in the world at their particular sport. And that everything else should be secondary. Then I run across a piece of history on what kind of signals you send when you allow a militaristic state host the Olympics. Like, let's say, Germany in 1936. Left unchecked, we found that they were capable of sending the world into chaos. And in that light, the protests surrounding the carrying of the Olympic torch are not only appropriate, I would argue that they are necessary.
But hey, I'm a sports blogger. I'm getting way outside my realm here. I'm supposed to point out the subtle ironies of life to everyone and stomp on the grave of the main stream media while typing away in my parents basement. Right? And to that end, I point out that the torch relay didn't start until the
1936 Berlin Olympics.
Never before had a lighted torch been relayed from a Greek temple in Olympia to an athletic competition, let alone by thousands of runners trying to keep it from being extinguished.
Hmmm ... if ever a propaganda machine was set in motion, it was the Nazi effort to show the world a united, technologically superior Germany. The first television broadcast was the
opening ceremonies of the 1936 Olympics. I have no idea what China has in store for their opening ceremonies, but I'm sure it will be spectacular. Maybe no new technologies will be introduced, but I'm sure it will be choreographed down to the smallest detail imaginable.
Obviously the Nazi inauguration of the carrying of the torch need not besmirch this tradition of unity. But it is ironic that China would not be in nearly as intense a PR war if not for the German initiation of the torch carrying tradition. China has named the carrying of the torch the "Journey of Harmony." And to this point it has been anything but. And I can't help but laugh every time I think that they have the Nazis to thank for it.
