My 13-year-old son had some pals over last night to watch the opening ceremonies. After an hour or two of the gibberish, I turned off the boob tube, and gave the boys a brief lecture on the history of the Olympic Games (ancient and modern), and the greatness of Great Britain - starting with colonization of the New World and carrying on through the Battle of Britain. When I was done, the kids said: “That would have been a lot better than what they did.”
I quite agree. England and Britain have a fascinating history. Arguably it’s the most important country in the modern world, since representative government and the Industrial Revolution were both birthed there.
And they managed to reduce that to this?
Reminds me of my visit to Epcot Center 25 years ago, which is supposed to be about the rich tapestry of our diversity. Made me want to run screaming from the park.
My antennae went up at the very beginning when they showed pictures of a procession of great Brits, beginning with Shakespeare. The next one was Newton, great, but the rest of the list was Charles Darwin, Jane Austin, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Are these really the people they revere? What about Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Thatcher? With all of the literary, scientific, and medical heavyweights they have had, not to mention great statesmen, they pick this mostly motley crew.
The pageantry was breath-taking, awesome during the agrarian and industrial revolution segments, but from there it deteriorated to texting and hooking up. Are these the great achievements of British endeavor? I understand that show business types never tire of patting themselves on the back, seeing themselves as the center of the universe, but are dead and dying Beatles really the apex of centuries of cultural evolution? It was just plain scarey, and we’ll be no better off if the country continues on its present course.