The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
Aug 15th, 2008 | By Natalie | Category: Foreign Affairs, HistoryOriginally posted over at birdbrain.
In 1936, a country under a totalitarian government hosted the summer Olympics. The regime successfully projected an image during these Olympics that convinced a great number of people that the regime was benign and good. This regime, of course, was the Nazis, who later went on to kill twelve million civilians and start a world war in which even more people died.
In 2008, another country under a totalitarian regime is hosting the summer Olympics. This country, Communist China, has a horrible record on human rights. They censor their internet and imprison dissidents. Yet they won the bid to host these games back in 2001 because they promised to make the 2008 Olympics “green”. In the years leading up to the 2008 Olympics, China employed the services of internationally known architects and urban planners to completely redesign their city. They are putting up a face of Communism for the world to see, a face intended to deceive us. They would have us believe that Communism works, yet nothing could be further from the truth.
We all know the saying: “Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.” Letting countries like Communist China or Nazi Germany host the Olympics just is not a good idea. By doing this, we (as in the free world) enable them with an excellent propaganda opportunity that can only serve to undermine us.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or, put more pithily, people never learn.
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Natalie is a university student. She used to be quite uninterested in politics until she had her "awakening", so to speak, in October 2007. She enjoys playing violin, reading, writing, photography, and knitting. She is the proud owner of two pet birds. She someday hopes to go to law school and eventually go into politics.
How true, Natalie. The world has strayed. Now all things are “equal” and “fair” and so it’s necessary to let even the most despotic of countries host the Olympics. After all, they say, how can we critique China–look how terrible America is!
This, of course, is spoken from deep wells of ignorance about the real world, and the terror these totalitarian governments hold over their own people. Here, at least, we can foolishly deride our own country and not be imprisoned or tortured for it!
I’m with you on the Olympics. They should not have been held in China. It is just a huge PR opportunity for an ugly nation.
Exactly. People in America, especially those who criticise our country unfairly, don’t fully realise what it’s like to live in a country like China. They deride America without realising that if America were as bad as they said it was, they wouldn’t be allowed to criticise it at all.