Photo by: HighTechDad
So you want to boycott the 2008 Olympics – A foray into mythbusting
Usually I dismiss protests and demonstrations as events organized by a small, passionate, and probably well-informed group of people. I dismiss them because to me, they are events attended by a large, uninformed/misinformed, and bandwagon-hopping mob. What really caught my attention this time was the sharp twang of annoyance at misinformation that went through me as I read the news. China and Sudan, China and Burma/Myanmar, China and Tiananmen, China and Tibet, Protests outside the Chinese embassy, Olympic flame harassed in London, Olympic flame planned to be harassed in Paris. It was as if everyone suddenly developed a selective conscience, or an extraordinarily large amount of people had been grossly misinformed. That, or I was living in a government-spun bubble of the Glorious People’s Republic. (I hope those that are reading, who also possess strong feelings on this subject matter, will note that the preceding sentence was a stab at humour)
Given the general misinformed nature of the protesters (but I hold adamant that a small number of protesters have actually thought about the issue), it should be said that the pro-Chinese government side is not all rosy either. With such names as Don’t free Tibet because the Dalai Lhama is an asshole dictator, it becomes hard to take them seriously.
Take Two
There are two dichotomies that I’d like to make: that between the state and the culture, and that between politics and sports. The latter has probably already sent some readers into a venomous diatribe about the poor brain-washed author. Politics and sports should not be mixed. In reality, they often are. The 1936 Olympics in Berlin was a clear platform for the National Socialists to broadcast to the world. It should be noted though, that the athletes, staff, and majority of the organizers did not have connections to the Nazi party.
The participants tried to keep the politics and sports separated, while the state tried to mix it. Likewise, I would wager that the majority of participants, organizers, volunteers, and others connected with the 2008 Olympics have politics far off in their list of “things-to-tie-to-the-Olympics”. It is obvious that these Olympics are a debutante ball for the PRC government. Given the sensitive nature of the culture of honour/shame in a Confucian society, the PRC government has downplayed the explicit political ties. I have always liked the maxim that two wrongs do not make a right. If the PRC government implicitly involving politics with the Games is wrong, then what about explicit political groups directly tying the Games to politics?
The other dichotomy that I mentioned is that between the state and the culture. That is to say that the PRC government and the Chinese people are not interchangeable terms. Political groups trying to put pressure on the PRC government over a myriad of issues advocate a boycott of the Olympic games. Understandably, the PRC government will suffer from both bad press domestically and internationally. However, an actual boycott (which thankfully does not seem likely at all) ends up hurting both the feelings and pride of the Chinese people.
In a formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative, the needs and happiness of the 1.2 billion Chinese people outweigh any pressures on the happiness of the 73 million Chinese Communist Party members. It just so happens that because of bullish nature of China’s economic growth that the majority of Chinese citizen tolerate and even like (oh noes! *note: sarcasm again) the PRC government. Contrary to majority Western media depiction, the PRC is not a police state with Stalinist terror forces. Most of the time, the CCP worries about the feelings of the people (as internal unrest is their one true fear), not the other way around. Still, a distinction between the government and the culture/people should be made.
Steven Spielberg
