Ok, it's over now and I enjoyed watching the Olympics. I
think I will sum up the recent Olympics with Olympic Game observations
and give you the opportunity to, ignore them, agree with or refute them.
These have come to me as I have watched (too much) of the competition
during the first week of the Games. The side shows at the Olympics are
always interesting to me because the Games are really more about human
drama than about sport. The range of emotions I observe inside the
competitors appear to include just about every one a human could have,
both good and bad.
One good one is the fact that most of the losing competitors are quite gracious publicly about their defeat. They rarely blame others and when interviewed after losing almost always praise the winner rather than making excuses for their own performance. I attribute that to the fact that they are so successful in their endeavors. Losing to the greatest competitors is probably not very devastating to an elite athlete. No excuses are needed because the losers train just as hard and have the same kind of elite talent as the winners. They all realize that the old axiom of sportsman ship "you can't win all the time" is true, and so they accept losses more graciously than, say the recreational player on a playground. Too bad we can't all feel that way in life outside the Games.
A negative observation I have is the fact that cell phones have take over the Olympic life as much as they have in life outside them. Athletes "tweet" constantly and carry their phones everywhere except the playing fields. And the fans in the stands are mesmerized by their phones. During one event I watched in which the TV cameras focused on the crowd, I saw at least 50% of the spectators with their heads down reading or texting on their phones and ignoring the competition. So the Olympics do mirror the same cell addiction we see in our ordinary days. It's sad.
Another thing that I am seeing and like about the games is how the games help break down prejudices and superiority complexes that are so often found in human. How wonderful, for example, when the athlete from the nondescript country who is given no chance of wining a gold medal, beats the bigger and sometimes overly prideful American, Chinese or Russian athlete. This reminds us to not pre judge or label individuals or to predispose expectations for them. The turtle and the hare exists in the Olympic games.
A bad aspect of the Games is the flag waving, mindless nationalism represented in the "how many medals did WE win" mindset of too many who watch them. I have observed that the countries with the least amount of freedom wave their flags most. The government uses the Games as away of convincing their citizens that their corrupt political system must be better, since it produces so many champion athletes. In a democratic society only the most un thinking person could make that connection, and democratic systems do not wave that phony banner as a matter of policy. But in nations in which people are propagandized and taught to think of themselves only as being a part of their nation rather than a distinct separate entity, it is a common tool. That's why, China for example, spends billions of dollars developing athletes at the earliest of ages in state run sports schools, and why China always wins so many medals in sports that are not popular. The government trains athletes to compete in those since the competition is less and the probability of winning the event is greater.
One final positive observation (and then I'll shut up) is that the Olympics give every person everywhere a common unifying event to focus. It is the catharsis for us every four years that we need so badly. In the Games there is much less of politics, of hate, of lies. The Games are are the toy we get every few years, and that is probably the greatest benefit of them.
One good one is the fact that most of the losing competitors are quite gracious publicly about their defeat. They rarely blame others and when interviewed after losing almost always praise the winner rather than making excuses for their own performance. I attribute that to the fact that they are so successful in their endeavors. Losing to the greatest competitors is probably not very devastating to an elite athlete. No excuses are needed because the losers train just as hard and have the same kind of elite talent as the winners. They all realize that the old axiom of sportsman ship "you can't win all the time" is true, and so they accept losses more graciously than, say the recreational player on a playground. Too bad we can't all feel that way in life outside the Games.
A negative observation I have is the fact that cell phones have take over the Olympic life as much as they have in life outside them. Athletes "tweet" constantly and carry their phones everywhere except the playing fields. And the fans in the stands are mesmerized by their phones. During one event I watched in which the TV cameras focused on the crowd, I saw at least 50% of the spectators with their heads down reading or texting on their phones and ignoring the competition. So the Olympics do mirror the same cell addiction we see in our ordinary days. It's sad.
Another thing that I am seeing and like about the games is how the games help break down prejudices and superiority complexes that are so often found in human. How wonderful, for example, when the athlete from the nondescript country who is given no chance of wining a gold medal, beats the bigger and sometimes overly prideful American, Chinese or Russian athlete. This reminds us to not pre judge or label individuals or to predispose expectations for them. The turtle and the hare exists in the Olympic games.
A bad aspect of the Games is the flag waving, mindless nationalism represented in the "how many medals did WE win" mindset of too many who watch them. I have observed that the countries with the least amount of freedom wave their flags most. The government uses the Games as away of convincing their citizens that their corrupt political system must be better, since it produces so many champion athletes. In a democratic society only the most un thinking person could make that connection, and democratic systems do not wave that phony banner as a matter of policy. But in nations in which people are propagandized and taught to think of themselves only as being a part of their nation rather than a distinct separate entity, it is a common tool. That's why, China for example, spends billions of dollars developing athletes at the earliest of ages in state run sports schools, and why China always wins so many medals in sports that are not popular. The government trains athletes to compete in those since the competition is less and the probability of winning the event is greater.
One final positive observation (and then I'll shut up) is that the Olympics give every person everywhere a common unifying event to focus. It is the catharsis for us every four years that we need so badly. In the Games there is much less of politics, of hate, of lies. The Games are are the toy we get every few years, and that is probably the greatest benefit of them.
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