Thursday, December 17, 2009

DON'T WORRY, WE HAVE YOUR EMOTIONS PRE-PACKAGED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

Toronto has Olympic fever. The torch is making its way through the city today, on its way to Vancouver. Watching the coverage has made my skin a little twitchy.

People are lined up on the sidewalks, in this burning cold, tears sticking to their faces, clutching their hearts ... why? Some of the quotes: "This is the greatest moment of my life" "I'm so glad my kids are able to witness this (isn't this a school day?)" And the torch bearers themselves are so emotional they're practically orgasmic

"I've been defined" said one torch bearer. Another: "I will remember this as long as I live"

Again: Why? People, you aren't really thinking about all this, are you

More quotes "The torch represents peace and hope" OK, well the murder of Israeli athletes and the Atlanta bombing kind of squashes that whole peace thing

"The torch is for unity among the world's peoples" Really now? With nations boycotting the games at various times, tons of official protests and the games being held in China, a non democratic country where people have no rights to govern themselves and where human rights violations are a daily occurrence

"The torch represents the beauty of competition" This one's too easy: Corrupt figure skating judges, Ben Johnson, human growth hormone, professional athletes.

Are people really thinking about this? Or are they just blithely following a pre packaged emotional construct. Who doesn't think that the Olympics are all about money and corporate greed? Who doesn't understand the subtext of national pride verging on racism? Who doesn't get that the upcoming Olympics in Rio will make a few people a ton of money but will do nothing to help the hundreds of thousands of those who live there in poverty and will, in all likelihood, make their lives even worse. What happened to all the poor people in Beijing? Do you think their lives got any better? I doubt it

Feel free to enjoy some of the athletic performances at the Olympics. Most of that leaves me cold, for a lot of these athletes, who train for monthly, yearly events of more importance, this is an artificial event, that happens every four years under a huge media spotlight and viewed by a lot of people who probably understand nothing about their sport. And its political. Way, way political, from what country hosts, to which athletes compete, to who carries a flag; you have to know it has nothing to do with individual achievement.

Can any adult with access to any kind of media not really get this? Yet here I'm watching all these people, completely overcome with emotion. Even if you can ignore all the incredible bullshit associated with the Olympics, unless you know someone involved, is it really this big a deal? At the most, its an athletic competition. But I hear all these vapid platitudes: World changing, hopefully, fulfilling, life altering ... oh people, give your head a shake

I think not enough people are thinking about this. Not enough people are thinking, period, They sit there in their living rooms and they let the SMPTE corrected colour images wash over them, soaking in this pre packaged propaganda that has nothing to do with reality but has everything to do with TV ratings and product placement .. oh, oh yeh, excuse me, the Olympics aren't about money ... cough cough.

Let's talk about the torch bearers themselves. Yes there was a school teacher, a retired athlete, but there was also an awful lot of "TV personalities" from CTV the network that is hosting (no, not hosting, but paid millions of the dollars) the games on Cdn television. Were they all there to promote amateur sports and the beauty of competition or national pride?

What really bothers me is how so many of these people are emoting and speaking as if they're following a script. They've given up their emotions to the spin doctors, and given it up easily. No wonder we can't see to be able to make critical, viable decisions when it comes to how we want to be governed. We're too fucking passive, we're too bludgeoned by marketing and politics to NOT think, to NOT be critical, to just spread our legs and take, and later, pay for the privileged.

Maybe we should use that torch to help keep warm some to the people sleeping on sewer grates in this city tonight

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said, my invisible friend. I haven't watched any of the Olympics since the one in Athens. Well, not voluntarily; someone at work insisted on having a television on for the Canadian hockey team. Yeah, rah, um, rah.

You forgot to add the moving of the winter Olympics so the networks could have their windfall every two years instead of burning out the viewers every four years.

There's also the dress rule about women's beach volleyball: they wear 2-piece bathing suits or they don't compete. Of course, *real* women don't have mastectomies and have their prostheses jiggle out of the bikini...

I won't be watching the event this year. I've mostly given up commercial television, and will be giving it up completely when digital is the only choice, since we don't have cable tv.

It's nice to encounter someone with similar views to mine. Keep up the good work!

Neil, posting anonymously 'cause Google doesn't like me today.

Victor Kellar said...

Thanks Neal, your comments are always welcome and yeh, if I listed all the things that make the Olympics a total sham, it would take a year to read the post

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