The Torch & Paris
According to the news this morning, the Olympic Torch was extinguished by anti China protesters as it passed through Paris. I suspect there is going to be some outcry about this, the Olympic torch sullied by political activists, the "politicizing" of the vaunted Olympic games. Already, a former member of the Olympic Committee has written an op-ed piece for the major dailies braying that the games may be tarnished by mere politics. (Ironically, the tradition of the Olympics is one of honoring international solidarity, a value this year's host seems to hold in low regard.)
To me, this is a great example ofundermining something by terming it politics. Caught with your hand in the cookie jar? Turn the tables by saying your opponents are playing "politics," or worse, "politicizing" an issue. (See, e.g., the entire Bush years). But I think this tactic will wear thin where China is concerned. After all, we are not talking about a procurement bill or a farm subsidy here. China is accused of colonizing Tibet and unlawfully imprisoning its leaders, backing genocide in Darfur, and being even more tone deaf on the environment than the US. Not small issues. A body count is associated with each.
The fact that there are some who will be aghast at the protest the Chinese Olympics have engendered is testament to how far we have defined deviance downward. The West has become so self obsessed, ironic, and jaded that anyone who actively calls out one of the worst human rights violators on the planet is regarded as belonging to some suspect subculture of the hopelessly immature or self righteous. (Shouldn't these people press their grievances through the proper channels? You know, the channels where they will be out of sight and we can ignore them. The channels that run outside the public eye.) Our Western traditions, and particularly Western Christianity, has always held that Moral Man has an obligation to act when confronted with injustice. The trouble is, that tradition is running smack into the capitalist tradition of the commodified, corporatized,highly profitable mass spectacle. And we would not want to sully that with politics would we.
To me, this is a great example ofundermining something by terming it politics. Caught with your hand in the cookie jar? Turn the tables by saying your opponents are playing "politics," or worse, "politicizing" an issue. (See, e.g., the entire Bush years). But I think this tactic will wear thin where China is concerned. After all, we are not talking about a procurement bill or a farm subsidy here. China is accused of colonizing Tibet and unlawfully imprisoning its leaders, backing genocide in Darfur, and being even more tone deaf on the environment than the US. Not small issues. A body count is associated with each.
The fact that there are some who will be aghast at the protest the Chinese Olympics have engendered is testament to how far we have defined deviance downward. The West has become so self obsessed, ironic, and jaded that anyone who actively calls out one of the worst human rights violators on the planet is regarded as belonging to some suspect subculture of the hopelessly immature or self righteous. (Shouldn't these people press their grievances through the proper channels? You know, the channels where they will be out of sight and we can ignore them. The channels that run outside the public eye.) Our Western traditions, and particularly Western Christianity, has always held that Moral Man has an obligation to act when confronted with injustice. The trouble is, that tradition is running smack into the capitalist tradition of the commodified, corporatized,highly profitable mass spectacle. And we would not want to sully that with politics would we.
posted by Jack Reed at 10:36 AM
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