No trouble on the San Francisco leg of the relay of the Olympic torch; that’s alright then. As spokespeople for the IOC and the Beijing Olympics parroted often enough, it must have just been a few separatists.
Well, I don’t mind admitting it when I’m wrong.
Sorry.
Of course, the fact that this leg of the relay went off without a hitch may have something to do with the fact that they changed the route and kept the bloody thing hidden from view – mainstream media players excepting, of course – for the duration of its proud skulk.
Turning a blind eye doesn’t make a problem go away; it exacerbates it, dickheads! No wonder eighty per cent* of the ‘developed’ world’s citizens are so disillusioned as their disfranchisement becomes apparent. At the moment most of these feelings manifest themselves in cynical apathy (hello!), which is all good in maintaining the status quo, but you can only kick sand in someone’s face for so long before they decide that it’s time to do something about it, so carry on with your blatant disregard for the opinions and feelings of the populace; I just hope you’re ready to reap what you’re sowing. Yeah, I know, this last bit’s slightly naïve, given what hasn’t happened over the last x-amount of years, but you’ve gotta have hope, haven’t you?
So what’s the point of parading the flame if you’re not parading it to anyone, except to a non-discriminatory camera?
The point is, propa-bleedin’-ganda!
We all criticise – quite rightly – the Nazi regime, which incidentally conceived the Olympic flame tradition and were masters of propaganda, just because it provides a convenient distraction to the crap that’s carried out in our names everywhere everyday. OK, they may have been one more step along the bar of bastardy, but we’re on it, too, and unless we make any attempt to move the other way and shift the balance, we’re gonna keep sliding along the trail of shit they leave behind until the incline is so steep that we’ll never get back to bearable bastardy or – who knows – maybe some niceness.
How do we do that without getting off our pacified arses?
Answers on a postcard to...
* The other 17 per cent composed of: Daily Mail or the equivalent readers, those with an ikkle bitty stake in the status quo, the ignorant, and the naïve. The other 3 per cent having a huge stake and just being complete bastards.
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2 comments:
Of course, it could be argued that the fact that they had to re-route the flame means that the protest is being heard and is 'winning', and that is a fair point.
My point, however, is that if our representatives really care about our views, they should leave routes unchanged so the disruption is visible to as many people as possible. If the route of the flame is changed, some will only see the smooth path of that flame and forget or disregard the storm being swept under the carpet.
By facilitating the flame's path, 'we' are simply trying to propogate the image that the Chinese government desires.
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