I somewhat enjoy watching the track and field events (As with the author, the cycling events turn me off). My mental image of the British sports fan has always been the manical drunken soccer hooligans. The brief shots I saw of happy Brits sitting in some nice urban park watching the Olympics on a big screen seemed rather pastoral and charming by contrast. Not being in the UK of course I have no idea how the public discourse is manifesting itself. On Sunday, August 12, 2012 2:50:19 PM UTC-5, Patrick Moore wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2P86C-1x3o > > Conservative loonie (not a loonie because he is conservative; he's > just a loonie and he is conservative), long-time dedicated > transportation cyclist, and brother-to-Christopher, Peter Hitchens, > writing for the raggish Mail, sez: > > "If you believe that Olympic glory makes a nation great, just remember the > USSR > This is Peter Hitchens’ Mail on Sunday column > > It seems that you can now be arrested for not smiling when an Olympic > event is taking place. So I had better watch out in case I am wrestled > to the ground and carted off by some Compulsory Happiness snatch > squad. > > For I have not been smiling nearly enough. I have watched two or three > races on the TV. > > There is still something thrilling in a raw contest among men and > women stretched to the uttermost, in which there can be only one > winner. > > It is refreshingly unlike modern Britain, where the very idea that > there must be losers for there to be winners is banned from most > schools, and denied by our political leaders. > > But I can summon up little interest in all the other alleged sports, > dancing animals, underwater basketball, bikini display or whatever > they are. As a lifelong cyclist, I find myself startlingly unmoved by > Olympic cycling. > > It is too technological, too dependent on machines and airlocks. > > The riders look like aliens in their special outfits. > > But good luck to you if you have enjoyed it. I am happy for you, > provided I’m allowed to differ from you. The trouble is, I’m not sure > I am. > > From the moment these Olympics started, there’s been a strong smell of > New Labour totalitarianism. > > Those who have dared to say they didn’t like the Opening Ceremony have > been lectured and made to feel isolated. > > The BBC even transmitted an astonishing personal attack on me in which > I was misrepresented (they have since apologised, an event as rare as > a Lottery win, but alas the apology is nothing like good enough). > > Now someone called Armando Iannucci, who is famous for something, has > called me a ‘scribbling cynic’ and proclaimed that I and those like me > ‘took a hell of a beating’. > > I think this is because the British team has won a lot of medals, and > the Opening Ceremony has been much praised. > > I can’t see why an Olympic opening ceremony should have any politics > in it at all. But remember how deeply the Blairite Cosa Nostra was > involved in securing the Olympics for London at all costs, and how > their heirs, the Cameron Tories, have taken up the baton. > > Why? I think the pitiful failure of the Millennium Dome rankled badly > with the Blairites. They were and are revolutionaries. They had long > hoped to use the new century to proclaim Year One of their nasty, > tatty, multicultural, anti-Christian New Britain. > > Put simply, I think they wanted to undo the magic of the 1953 > Coronation Ceremony, with modernist incantations and a censored, > reordered version of our national history. > > The Olympics were a second chance, in which a normal love of sport > could be converted into an anti-conservative wave of feeling. > > And behold, they have done it. I don’t begrudge the winners their joy, > or the spectators their delight. > > But do Olympic medals make a nation great? Was the USSR a great nation > because it won lots of them? Is Jamaica a stable and happy society > because Usain Bolt is a great athlete? > Would you rather have Australia’s thriving economy, or Britain’s medal > tally? And by the way, have Prince William and his wife forgotten that > they are future monarchs of Australia? > > In a free country, there is no obvious connection between sporting > achievement and national standing. The truth is that we have used > scarce money to hire coaches, buy equipment and subsidise athletes in > sports where competition is weak. > > When all this is over, we will still be broke, disorderly, badly > educated and gravely troubled by the greatest wave of mass immigration > in our history. I cannot see why I should smile about that." > > -- > "When in Rome, do as they done in Milledgeville." > > Flannery O'Connor > > ------------------------- > Patrick Moore, Albuquerque, NM, USA > For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW > http://resumespecialties.com/index.html > ------------------------- > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/I9hvc42EhEYJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
