The Olympics officially kick off this evening, and millions of people plan on tuning in tonight and over the next few weeks. An estimated fifty-three percent, actually. Although that number’s down a bit from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, it’s still a significant amount. Yet, unlike these people, I can’t bring myself to give a damn…not about the stats and scores, anyway. I don’t much care whether we win in figure skating, the most popular sport, or bobsledding, the gayest. Nor does roughly forty-seven percent of the nation. I wonder: Does that make us bad American, or good ones?
There’s a lot of grandstanding about the Olympics symbolizing global harmony and understanding. The Olympic Charter reads, “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on…respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” It’s a philosophy, they say, which includes “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” Despite the International Olympic Committee’s best efforts, the Olympics have never been apolitical, or even peaceful. The IOC itself plays backdoor politics with various sports federations over controversial issues, like China’s repression in Tibet. To ignore these realities would be naïve. So too would pretending that people give a hoot about the international aspect.
Through it all, the Olympics are about nationalism. We’re meant to tally our golds and silvers, ticking off how far our American boys and girls are inching toward the ultimate “Olympian” status, becoming our athletic and patriotic gods. I remember the Summer Games in 1996, when my peers cheered and roared as if the country’s very existence depended on our success. It’s the same every year: People getting worked up over our standing, our “medaling.” It’s an enforced patriotism that I’ve never truly endorsed. And I sense I’m not alone.
The amount of people who watch the Olympics are indeed impressive. They’re also a relatively unique group: they’re mostly white – 56% of white people versus 43% of minorities, according to Gallup – and live in urban or suburban areas, rather than rural (56% vs. 41%). The majority of the viewers will likely be seniors: 65% said they plan on watching the action. And, of course, the well-off – those who make over $75,000 a year – are watching more than their less-fortunate compatriots. It’s a pretty skewed population, leaving many of us out of the locker room.
Not even President Obama seems to care about the Games: He’s sending Joe Biden in his place, a move some think represents a middle finger to the IOC, which shot down his Chicago Summer games bid. Does this make him anti-American? Shouldn’t he put hurt feelings aside and make time to cheer on our athletes? If I were a more right-wing fellow, I would say that the apathetic among us, including Obama, aren’t faithful servants to the flag. We’re socialists! But that’s not really true, because Olympic resistance, however small, can be justified.
There are a host of problems with which American citizens can take offense and, in turn, use to defy the prescribed Olympic excitement. If you’re gay, you can protest enforced American patriotism over pervasive and institutionalized inequality, like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. If you’re a feminist, you can shake a fist over the fact that women’s ski jumping isn’t allowed, a move supporters called discrimination. The IOC denies that and offered a foreboding rebuttal. Asked whether they would consider the team for 2014, IOC member Dick Pound replied, “The IOC may say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember them. They’re the ones that embarrassed us and caused us a lot of trouble of trouble in Vancouver, maybe they should wait another four years or eight years.’” That’s hardly as harmonious an image as the IOC likes to project.
The politics become more complicated if you love the Olympics, but loathe certain political happenings, like health care reform or the Obama administration. In that case, loving the Olympics can be a testament to your own brand of patriotism, one that’s larger and more historic than any President’s. This patriotism likely supports the IOC charter’s stipulation that “the Olympic Games are the exclusive property of the IOC which owns all rights and data relating thereto.” That’s capitalism through and through, something with which any good old American can really relate.
Meanwhile, if a person cares enough to physically protest the games – like the Olympic Resistance Network, which objects to the Games’ capitalism, among other things – they could argue that they’re fighting for human rights and equality. Such an approach more closely resembles the Democratic dream and proves more patriotic than any amount of cheerleading or promotional tie-in.
Getting worked up over all of the Olympic madness hardly seems worth it, though. It’s fun to see the opening ceremony and, yes, I’ll watch with awe as snowboarders flip and twirl. The Games are all good fun – this I understand. It’s nice to hear about the Olympic celebrities, like skiing star Bode Miller. And those Ralph Lauren ski uniforms sure are cute. Yet this year more than any other, the games come across as a desperate distraction.
It’s hard to cheer for the country when our collective situation remains so dismal. And I’m not alone in my cynicism. Jason Zengerie from New York magazine recently blasted the Games’ “fraudulent premise” that they’re only about sports, and insisted “the notion that a sporting event becomes more interesting simply because it involves nations—rather than individuals or teams… is absurd.” Sadly, this shared derision and apathy may say more about American patriotism today than anything else.
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