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OT: Just say no to the Olympics
Topic Started: Feb 9 2014, 02:43 PM (104 Views)
JustOneDennisBergkamp
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JODB
The Olympic games, both summer and winter, have become massive beasts that need to either be hit with tranquilizer darts or simply put down with a large caliber rifle. The Olympic ideal has been replaced with a corporate/nationalistic ideal that tramples, often viciously, over anything in its way. And to boot, it is one massive scam perpetrated on municipalities and countries across the globe.

The modern Olympic games are far more about branding and finding athletic spokes-models of the future than the joy and honor of athletic competition. Add to that the FIFA-like corruption and moral bankruptcy of the IOC, and I have little appetite left for this kind of pageant.

The shakers and movers at the local levels join the IOC in scamming the population into a belief that the Games will be a major financial boon, bringing massive employment and truck loads of cash to a region. This is utter bullshit. In most cases, the only folks making out on these events are those middlemen smart enough to get others to invest. The prestige that the Games supposedly bring to a community can only be appreciated so much against the backdrop of budgetary shortfalls that ultimately lead to the gutting of programs that benefit the common people most.

And let's not lose sight of everything from forced relocation of the poor and powerless to the repression of free speech and assembly that takes place in the name of the Olympic Games. From Mexico City to Beijing, we've seen ugly examples of what it means to get in the way of the Olympic machine.

The Olympics have gone so far away from the strongest and fastest flocking to Athens in loin cloths that it is almost unrecognizable. Though the Games have their moments of humanity and individual triumph, they are, just like our political system, so corrupted by corporate and nationalistic interests, that even the most shining moment can't get the bad taste out of my mouth.

(Once again, a slave to the five paragraph essay)
Edited by JustOneDennisBergkamp, Feb 9 2014, 02:48 PM.
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East German Gooner

Yes it went from Cold War propaganda to corporate propaganda. The pressure was immense for Eastern bloc countries to perform against the west back then. East Germany was always up there in medal counts especially the Moscow one (my last one living there) when the free world didn't participate.
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jays712
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I love the Olympics. I just got done watching the biathlon and I'll be all over the curling when it starts. It's become an economic black hole filled with corporate greed for countries but so has the World Cup. Should that get put out to pasture too?
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JustOneDennisBergkamp
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jays712
Feb 9 2014, 05:51 PM
I love the Olympics. I just got done watching the biathlon and I'll be all over the curling when it starts. It's become an economic black hole filled with corporate greed for countries but so has the World Cup. Should that get put out to pasture too?
I never called for the cancellation of the Games. The "just say no" references both my individual approach and my advice to any city or country being hustled to host them.

Enjoy.
Edited by JustOneDennisBergkamp, Feb 9 2014, 06:11 PM.
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jays712
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JustOneDennisBergkamp
Feb 9 2014, 06:11 PM
jays712
Feb 9 2014, 05:51 PM
I love the Olympics. I just got done watching the biathlon and I'll be all over the curling when it starts. It's become an economic black hole filled with corporate greed for countries but so has the World Cup. Should that get put out to pasture too?
I never called for the cancellation of the Games. The "just say no" references both my individual approach and my advice to any city or country being hustled to host them.

Enjoy.
Hit with a tranquilizer dart or large caliber rifle? I think that implies you want to the Olympics to go away, especialy the large caliber rifle comment. That's how you feel, than so be it. No one can deny that the "Olympic movement" is not even close to the ideal that it tries to put out there. Its a financial and political mess to host and I would never want my city hosting one that's for sure but I love watching all of it.
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JustOneDennisBergkamp
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jays712
Feb 9 2014, 08:05 PM
JustOneDennisBergkamp
Feb 9 2014, 06:11 PM
jays712
Feb 9 2014, 05:51 PM
I love the Olympics. I just got done watching the biathlon and I'll be all over the curling when it starts. It's become an economic black hole filled with corporate greed for countries but so has the World Cup. Should that get put out to pasture too?
I never called for the cancellation of the Games. The "just say no" references both my individual approach and my advice to any city or country being hustled to host them.

Enjoy.
Hit with a tranquilizer dart or large caliber rifle? I think that implies you want to the Olympics to go away, especialy the large caliber rifle comment. That's how you feel, than so be it. No one can deny that the "Olympic movement" is not even close to the ideal that it tries to put out there. Its a financial and political mess to host and I would never want my city hosting one that's for sure but I love watching all of it.
I watch too at times. The beast is out of control, though. If it can't be tranquilized, then unfortunately, it may need to be put down.

From Mexico City in 1968: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97546687

To Beijing in 2008: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2007-06-05-3431055449_x.htm

I'm sure that the event's footprint has been no less destructive in Sochi.

But you posed an interesting question before about calling for similar questioning of the World Cup. That I hadn't previously applied the same standards to my love for and approval of the WC is entirely reflective of my own selfishness. I'm addicted to football, so no amount of citizens being displaced in Brazil or workers dying in Qatar would keep me from my fix.

I don't boycott the Olympics, though, but I do see them for what they are and for the untold harms that they cause.
Edited by JustOneDennisBergkamp, Feb 9 2014, 08:34 PM.
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rw_mlite2
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What you've failed to do here is talk about the other aspect here: the athletes. Other than the top, top dogs who may be as much concerned about their sponsorship opportunities (and, I'd argue, this mostly applies to summer athletes), the Olympic ideal still exists for them. Maybe not in the way it was originally intended, but representing your country against the best of those from other countries is what they're here (there) for. I'll go on to say that it's much more *pure* for Olympic athletes than for World Cup players considering the vast majority that can't make a real living doing the sport they love. This isn't to say that I disagree with you on the corporate greed, IOC corruption, potential for regional financial and economic ruin, and trampling on the common man. Those things are a major problem and need to be addressed.
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dsch15
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rw_mlite2
Feb 10 2014, 10:40 AM
What you've failed to do here is talk about the other aspect here: the athletes. Other than the top, top dogs who may be as much concerned about their sponsorship opportunities (and, I'd argue, this mostly applies to summer athletes), the Olympic ideal still exists for them. Maybe not in the way it was originally intended, but representing your country against the best of those from other countries is what they're here (there) for. I'll go on to say that it's much more *pure* for Olympic athletes than for World Cup players considering the vast majority that can't make a real living doing the sport they love. This isn't to say that I disagree with you on the corporate greed, IOC corruption, potential for regional financial and economic ruin, and trampling on the common man. Those things are a major problem and need to be addressed.
Case in point: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. Right when I get just about as jaded as the OP, a performance like this comes along.
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JustOneDennisBergkamp
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JODB
As I mentioned, amidst the corruption and violation of human rights are wonderful moments that remind us of the Olympic ideal. The reason that I failed to talk about the athletes, though, is that I have no problem with their attempts to live out their life-long dreams. In the absence of state sponsorship, they have to make a living somehow while training full-time and more.

It's all those middlemen that need to be lined up outside the stadium and...
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