Angry in the Great White North

Let's not fool ourselves.  The Olympic movement is a tribute to man's ability to take narcissism to pathological levels.  From the athletes who willingly accept long-term health problems in return for the physical enhancing effects of drugs to the referees and judges who are for sale to the highest bidder to the highest echelons to the Olympic organization that routinely accepts bribes in return for votes when it comes time to decide on the next venue for the games -- all are guilty of the most disgusting hypocrisy, holding themselves out to be the best mankind has to offer -- the epitome of physical and mental health playing for the love of the game.

Right.

It would be funny if it weren't for the billions wasted on this circus.

But give the Olympic movement credit -- there is never a shortage of cities contending for the games, and willing to spend whatever it takes to get them.  Of course, the people vying for the games are not fools.  This is not about the love of sport.  This is about the chance to cash in with the exposure that comes with the games, the tourism and other revenue generating side effects.  That many games ended up running huge deficits never seems to worry these people.

Of course, they're not on the hook for the money.  Between the salaries and the bribes, the people who run the Olympics are never wanting for cash.  A badly run Olympic games is a headache for the taxpayers of the host country.

So having made it clear that there is no Olympic magic, just the most vulgar parade of greed and corruption that repeats every four years, do the Olympics serve any positive purpose?

Oddly enough, they do.  The desperation exhibited by countries like China to host the games and to turn them into a massive propaganda exercise (something does not seem to bother the people running the Olympics) gives the rest of a world a unique opportunity.

China wants the Olympics to succeed.  China needs the Olympics to succeed.  Like Nazi Germany in 1936, success is not about the athletes but about showcasing Chinese superiority.

Why would anyone want to give the Olympics to China?  Interestingly, when the Olympic committee awarded the games to Berlin in 1931, the Nazis weren't in power yet.  The current crop of kleptocrats running the Olympic movement have no such excuse.  Everyone knew full well who was in power in Beijing, and everyone knew full well what the dictatorship in Beijing was capable of doing when faced with the sort of defiance that in the civilized world is considered normal political discourse.

With five months to go, Tibet explodes and the Chinese move in troops and start killing people.  Various nations are struggling with the decision about what to do next.  I wish it was different.  I wish the democracies of the world were waiting for an excuse to skip these Olympics. 

Why?  Think about it.  How many times has China deserved to be slapped down?  Tibet.  Darfur.  Taiwan.  How many times has the world decided nothing could be done?  The role China plays in the world's manufacturing chain prohibits moves against Chinese trade.

But now the world has the perfect way to make its displeasure clear.  Skip out of the Olympics.  It hurts China, and hurts it wear it counts -- in its overcompensating pride.  But unlike trade sanctions that hurts both parties, all we lose is a chance to lose in the medal count.

I can live with that.

I wish that the events in Tibet merely provided the excuse, and that nation after nation were announcing their decision to bow out of the Olympics.  But I do expect there to be fallout.  I expect that the opening ceremonies will be abbreviated.  I expect that the constraints on reporting will become a story in of itself.  The pollution?  Another story that will dog these Olympics.  The massive dislocations of Chinese citizens, the massive police presence, the sheer hypocrisy of keeping the Chinese out of the Beijing Olympics.

Thanks to Tibet and the Chinese response, there will be less consideration given to soft-pedaling these stories.  A narrative is forming that will make these Olympics one of the most notable ever -- and for all the wrong reasons.

I'd still prefer a boycott.  But this will hurt the Chinese Communists as well.  And in a sense, the Olympics are finally performing a positive role.  Certainly China has been the subject of a lot of criticism, criticism the Chinese government shrugs off.  But in investing so much national pride in the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government has handed a potent weapon to its critics.  Criticize games, and the government squirms and makes excuses and wonders if it would just be easier to be a better global citizen.

Finally, the Olympics are good for something.