Personally I can't stand the Olympic Games, and four years ago I was quite happy to take an aeroplane from London to Vienna just to get away from them. (The only sport the Austrians are interested in is skiing.) Don't ask me why. It may have something to do with the way they've now been re-branded as "the Olympics", with the word 'Games' having been quietly dropped - the point being, of course, to establish them firmly in the ambit of "Sport", which (as Any Fule Kno) is something serious and important (unlike mere "games", which of course aren't). And of course the point of
that is to make "Sport" actually
mean games - as opposed to
actual sports such as hunting, shooting and fishing.
It may also have something to do with the false consciousness that
all sorts of international contests engender - wars especially, but competitions of this sort just as surely. Both Peter Hitchens (
from the right) and Simon Jenkins (
from the left - although interestingly enough neither is terribly happy about the Soviet-isation of Britain) have (this time round - because they valued their jobs too much last time, when the Olympics were held in London) written reliably scathingly about the absurd investment that the British (both the Great British Public and the good old British Establishment) have made in winning medals. But they both miss the fundamental point, which is that even more so than wars, which normally aren't (or shouldn't) be fought in "our" name, international sporting tournaments really don't have anything to
do with "us". And nowadays more so than ever! Why, to take a very obvious example, should I cheer on some black man, whom I've never met and who doesn't even live in Britain, and then somehow feel proud of him if and when he wins his stupid effing running race? Fundamentally, for me the Olympics really are just about so many people I have nothing in common with doing various pointless things that I don't care about. After all, they're not normally even pretty!*
And it may, of course, just be that I also loathe games, of all sorts.
It's even more fun then to reflect that one ceremonial innovation that was introduced into the whole "Olympic" nonsense by Dr Joseph Goebbels was what we nowadays call the Olympic Torch. Because, yes, it was
a "Nazi thing".
And, like the VW Beetle, the motorway and the aspirin tablet, it's not one for which the Nazis are ever going to receive very much credit.
*I sometimes wonder what will happen if (when?) the day comes when most European countries enter members of ethnic minorities for the running races. Even if the well-paid commentators from the MSM carry on dutifully shrieking for their counties' official candidates, is it not possible (even probable) that the folks at home will be quietly rooting for Lithuania or Estonia?
