Look/Lock Down

The Olympics are an interesting metaphor for the world. Here we have the most opulent, most expensive and most secure event the world has ever seen. In fact these games might be the last to reach such dizzying heights. Perhaps this is the peak from which the only way is down, back to sanity, back to reality.

In the end, a relatively small portion of the earth's human population will witness and take part in this (we're told) highest sporting event demonstrating the best of humanity. Lay down your arms and pick up your Nike shoes and your dryfit clothing. In Beijing will gather the strongest, the fastest, the most accurate and the most daring humans who have ever lived. They do their jobs so well. And we all need a job, a purpose, don't we?

And all the while the ominous smog hangs above the city like a noose. This is the dark heart of human civilization. While things seem so good, it's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore that we are paying a heavy price for the heights we have reached (if heights they may be called, perhaps depths would be more appropriate). China's rapid "growth" has made it a toxic soup. Algae blooms and clogs the shoreline of the mighty city. Rotten air obscures the skyscrapers. All this has happened before and all this will happen again. North American cities were the first to poison themselves. Now we share this pleasure with the rest of the world. Ain't globalization grand?

The Beijing games will help us to forget climate change, economic meltdowns around the world and rising global food costs. Much like a news story on Britney Spears, the last thing that must happen is for people to concern themselves with the future. Carry on with your lives. The authorities have everything under control.

But the wolf is at the door.

Who will be the first athlete to fall victim to a heart attack at the Beijing games? All that particulate matter on clean, efficient, pink, virgin lungs doesn't always lead to the podium. Wouldn't it be better to run through a forest and leave behind the gold, silver and bronze?

How fast will the protectors of civilization, the armed guardians, smash in their first skull? Will we all rejoice together even through this violence? Why do we even need policing? Are we incapable of living together? Why should someone tell us how to behave under the threat of violence? Oh yeah, there are far too many of us and we are taught not to share. So police are a fact of life.

In the end do you even remember one event from an Olympics past? Was it a defining moment for you? Did it touch you? No, I can't say I ever bought the advertising and I think you didn't either. Will this year be any different? Who cares about all these fools running and jumping for my entertainment? We should be running. We should be jumping. We should be raging.

The Olympics blind us with bright lights. If you're always looking up you can't see the murky pools around the base of our enterprise. Look down.