Bissinger: Turn off The Olympic Lights

Tough.
It's easy for people here to take the long view. There are a helluva lot of people in Tibet -- and, in China -- who aren't going to have the opportunity.

 

The U.N. is probably even less effective. The only hope for change in china is the children today responding to western culture and applying it to their politics tomorrow. China doesn't listen to anyone and they don't have to. Change will only come from within. Plant the seeds and let it grow.

 

How much coverage do you think they'd be getting were it not for the Olympics in a few months? How much conversation would their plight be getting even between us?

I mean, I know you pick out one cause to have a good tantrum about every day, but the rest of us probably wouldn't know anything about it.

The Olympics are amoral. Please. I swear man, does anything in sports ever get you excited — excited in a good way? Or do you bitch about the concession stand workers at a beautiful June baseball game not having health coverage? Do you sit in the corner at the Super Bowl party and whine to your friends about the misdeeds of every advertiser? Does anything in life — outside bitching about stuff and trying to sound smarter than everyone else — ever get you excited?

I bet you're the guy who can't go through a good movie without pointing out every instance of product placement. Everyday you post on here like you stepped in dog shit while walking out of your house. Sure there are massive, impossible to ignore problems with the Olympics. There's also a hell of a lot right with them, and I for one hope we try to fix those problems rather than take chicken exit and toss away all the great parts.

 

Yeah, Fenian. Don't you remember how Jesse Owens single-handedly stopped the Nazis with his fearless performance in the '36 games in Berlin? We'd have had another "Great War" if not for the Olympics. And how about the way Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos hastened the end of racism by raising their fists in Mexico City in '68. The Olympic Games aren't just a made-for-TV sporting event, they're an international agent of social change and goodwill.

 

Yeah, because we are actually trying to prove that the Olympics will bring an end to repression in China. That's exactly what I meant. Glad you caught on.

 

The answer to most of your bullshit is, yes, I do enjoy sports. And I'm great fun at the movies. I'm sorry if your busy schedule doesn't allow you to stay involved in the world around you, but that's your problem, dude, not mine. And, for the record, based on this post, and based on the inevitable whiny "trying to sound smarter than everyone else" line, I am smarter than you. Deal with it in your own good time.
So, I guess the syllogism is that, if it weren;t for the Olympics, we wouldn't be feeling so awful about Tibet. I'm sure the people there are happy about it.

 

You are the world, EF.
We're just unruly passengers.

 

China cracking down on Tibet without the spotlight of the world on it would be better?

 

China would be cracking down on Tibet WITH OR WITHOUT the world spotlight, and there's no evidence that the world spotlight is in any way slowing them down, is there?

 

The people of Tibet would have not have created such a vocal protest were there no Olympics in China. China's response was not exactly swift. In fact it took nearly 24-hours before they even responded to the looting.

China's response was predictable. They shoot to kill.

Now we get to see how they respond to the pressure from outside. It has been sort of predictable. However, we also get to watch as the government scrambles.

 

I don't see the government "scrambling."
I see a monolithic capitalist/authoritarian hybrid, with the economic wherewithal that the USSR never had, rolling smoothly on.