Posted on 08/24/2008 6:25:48 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
Isn’t this British Olympic boasting all rather East German?
Huge state-directed resources have been devoted to gathering supposed glory at a world sports festival.
But these medals do not tell the truth about what sort of nation we are at all.
In fact, they are designed to cover up the truth – that we are an international failure, that our people are increasingly fat, unfit and unhealthy, that our schools continue to lose their sports grounds to development, and that we are, for the most part, one of the least competitive and sporty countries on Earth.
What’s more, the national anthem played repeatedly in Peking is a song few of us know and almost nobody sings.
East Germany had a similar aim when it spent millions to produce medal winners.
The country itself was a backward, dirty dump, run by horrible old men and women, shrouded in a smog of two-stroke exhaust, brown coal smoke and cabbage fumes.
But at the Olympics it managed to appear to be modern, clean, youthful and bright.
And we have to pretend that Olympic success matters, just as they did, because we have nothing else to be proud of.
We achieve this by levying a tax on the sad, the deluded and the hopeless, called the National Lottery, and spending the money bamboozled out of these poor people on velodromes where cyclists dressed as spacemen whizz endlessly round under the cold gaze of ruthless trainers.
Our industries may have vanished, our fisheries may have been stolen, our streets may be increasingly dangerous. But, gosh, wow, we have lots of gold medals.
And we hope to stage our own Olympics four years hence – greedily seizing the chance, as Third World nations always do, to pretend that we’re going up, when in fact we’re on the way down.
I’m pleased, of course, for the individual medal winners – especially Rebecca Adlington, who would probably have won a medal without any help from the hateful Lottery.
But their achievements are their own, not mine. It makes no difference to my life, or yours.
And how odd it is that all this effort, all this money and talent should have been devoted to succeeding in a contest which is, deep down, quite meaningless.
Politicians of all the Liberal Elite parties join in praising the way it has been done. Yet if anyone advocates the same methods in our State education system – ruthless selection, encouragement of the best, harsh discipline, no tolerance of failure – he is dismissed by the same politicians as an ‘elitist’.
Well, excuse me, but isn’t it far more important that we survive as an economy and a society in this hard, competitive and increasingly merciless world than that we gain a few shiny knick-knacks in an athletics meeting?
Let John Major, Michael Gove, Gordon Brown, Tessa Jowell and the rest of the supporters of comprehensive schools and diluted exams and socialised university entrance apply their principles to Britain’s 2012 Olympic team.
Your parents went to university? You’re rejected, so as to give an opportunity to someone who can’t swim as fast but needs encouragement.
You went to a private school? You’re rejected, too. We can’t have any privilege here, even if your parents bankrupted themselves to pay the fees. Your place will go to someone slower and less fit.
You passed a tough test way ahead of the others? Sorry, you’ll just have to go at the speed of the slowest in a mixed-ability training squad.
You’re talented but you live in a poor area? Too bad. All our best training schemes are in rich suburbs.
Your training is constantly interrupted by bullying, swearing and loutish behaviour? Too bad. Here’s a copy of our ‘anti-bullying policy’.
You’re doing really well? No help for you, then. Our concern is for equality, not excellence.
You’re slow, undisciplined, disruptive and no good? Have a special trainer and lots of resources.
If we nurtured our Olympic hopefuls the way we educate our children, the only role they’d have in any Games would be sweeping up litter in the stadium.
I have seldom seen a better example of an entire country getting its priorities wrong.
The day will come, and quite soon, when we win no medals and realise what we have become.
But I suspect, by then, it will be too late.
I truly believe that the West has gone too long without a really bad war. A bloody, frightening war shows a people who they really are. It reorients a nation’s priorities. I don’t want millions of Americans to die, but there are tens of millions — hundreds of millions — of people in the West who are having rotten lives because western civilization has lost it’s way.
Welcome back!
I hear we will see the NEW Britain at the closing ceremonies of the olympics :-)
Playing Devil’s advocate here. Some would argue that China’s government run Olympic Team and their huge success in 2008 would be argument for MORE government intervention in an endeavor in order to make it more successful. Go Figure !
Yes, by all means we should “kidnap” three-year old girls because they look like they could potentially become great gymnasts and have great glory when they win Gold medals at the age of 12, and then casually discard them once their use to us is done.
China's olympic training does what it is supposed to do, start off with thousands (maybe even tens or hundreds of thousands) of potential athletes, train them and filter out the best for the purpose of winning medals for the government. I don't know whether the children who start in the program are given much of an education, or if they just reach 18 with no useful skills other than being the tenth best ping pong player in their age group. However, it does succeed in their aim of producing a lot of excellent athletes.
Let John Major, Michael Gove, Gordon Brown, Tessa Jowell and the rest of the supporters of comprehensive schools and diluted exams and socialised university entrance apply their principles to Britain’s 2012 Olympic team.
Now the question is whether the US and British educational systems are failing at their goal of producing an educated and productive society, or are they suceeding at some more sinister goals.
Unfortunately, the latter.
Excellent! A very thoughtful and insightful analysis. More than that, an analysis that is indisputable.
bookmarmk
Which is exactly how their education system works. Weed out he "undesirables" and send the rest on. The Peter Principle at it's very best.
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