The current issue of The Philosophers’ Magazine features a fine forum on sport, with a number of philosophers of sport weighing in (ahem), just in time to prove that even the Olympics can be a source of philosophical inspiration. Here’s an article by Jim Parry, visiting professor of Olympic studies at Gresham College no less, called ‘The Philosophy of the Olympic Movement’. He goes into some detail about the philosophical underpinnings of the modern games (there’s a lot I didn’t know about that), but he makes a particularly interesting point about the fundamentally ethical nature of sport. He writes,
It is difficult even to state the characteristics of sport without relying on terms that carry ethical import, and such meanings must apply across the world of sports participation. Without agreement on rule-adherence, the authority of the referee, and the central shared values of the activity, there could be no sport.
Somewhere behind the sponsorship deals, security concerns, drugs testing and large personalities, there’s the founding ideal of the modern games: the promotion of a certain set of values, including co-operation, respect and what Parry calls ‘mutual valuing’. The Games went to Moscow, and who knows, maybe that had a little to do with the wall coming down. Perhaps something good rubbed off at the Beijing Olympics. Maybe we could do with the injection of such values here in London too.
So what do you think? Is sport a fundamentally ethical practice? When the Olympics come to town, does it have good effects on human rights, tolerance, and other sorts of values in the host country? Do athletes and spectators alike walk away better people for having taken part or looked on? Are the Olympics part of a real push towards peaceful internationalism? Or is it all a huge waste of time, money, and lycra?
” Are the Olympics part of a real push towards peaceful internationalism? ”
I would say yes.
I like how the article speculates about the purpose of the Olympics. For instance: “The Games went to Moscow, and who knows, maybe that had a little to do with the wall coming down. Perhaps something good rubbed off at the Beijing Olympics. Maybe we could do with the injection of such values here in London too.”
I have done some speculating of my own. Perhaps the expense of holding the Olympics in 2004 greatly contributed in putting Greece into the financial and economic debacle it is in today. Perhaps one way to revitalize the Greek economy is to permanently give them the Olympics.
I would speculate that one worry is about how long will the Olympics remain affordable, as if they are now.
I think it is a waste of time and money. It’s a forced celebration of athletics, a cult of youth, and has little impact on most people’s lives. Sport matters to people most when it involves local efforts – local football or rugby or cricket teams, or continually active national teams. Something that happens once every four years is of little consequence. For many sports people the Olympics is a sideshow. For example, in cycling, the Tour de France is the preferred event, and for tennis it’s Wimbledon.
If the Olympics is to continue, I would like to see it much, much smaller, much cheaper, and involving more than just sport. Apparently the original games had Architecture competitions!
Well, there used to be something called the Gay Olympics. Now it’s the Gay Games. Why? Turns out that some national or international group controls the use of the term “Olympics.” As I understand things, the group told the Gay Olympics to stop using the term. Asked why, the group said they didn’t want people giving money to the Gay Olympics thinking they were giving it to the real Olympics. The group didn’t say the same thing to the Special Olympics. Dunno why.
Best wishes,
Charles
I take the point about the Olympics being a side show and possibly a financial disaster for the host country, but I do still wonder about the supposedly moral dimension of sport, and whether or not some set of values or other rubs off on the competitors, spectators, etc. The thought is that sport teaches moral lessons.
Parry argues that it’s not easy for a competitor from a totalitarian country to walk away unchanged, and it’s not easy to see so many different people coming together, sharing whatever it is that makes the Olympics the Olympics, without a subliminal nudge towards liberal or multicultural values.
If all that’s true, maybe it’s worth the financial cost, maybe it’s far from a waste of time. (It’s Thursday, and Thursday is Don’t Be Cynical Day.)
Charles it was with unnecessary trepidation that I googled ‘Gay Games’, but you’re right, and it looks like the Olympic folk did insist that they change the name. I recall something last year about them preventing the Olympic rings appearing on unauthorized high street cakes too.
The element I am finding far more interesting than the games themselves, is the ridiculous way people are being treated due to this event that is supposedly about bringing people together. For example, my local council (Leeds City Council) pulled out of an event about ethics in business. The reason? The Chinese government applied pressure over the Dalai Lamma attending, which as the Chinese Olympics team is training in Leeds, the council got nervous. Alternatively, look at how much is being done to keep big business happy, to the point of people having to carry items by non-Olympic “partners” in plain packaging.
I just do not get this running with torches, it leaves me unmoved. What is interesting is to note how easily mass passions are raised and thousands turn out to wave and cheer: crowd psychology. Humans are so easily stirred up, it is rather like an infection running through the nation from town to town. What is it but someone walking, running holding some sort of cannister with a small guttering flame at the top. It is in itself neither clever nor spectacular.
Speaking of raising the passions I note the idea of a torch relay was devised by the Germans for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hitler admired the culture of Classical Greece, and the relay was seen as an imaginative way to link Berlin with the original Games. The man behind the idea was Carl Diem, one of the organisers in 1936.The first torch was made of steel from Krupps metal-works, where Hitler was stockpiling munitions ahead of the Second World War. There was widespread discussion about the best way to light the Berlin flame. Using a match was considered too mundane. Greek archaeologist Alexander Philadelphus suggested it should be lit by the sun’s rays focused on to kindling by a parabolic glass. To thank him, Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels personally awarded him the German Olympic Order. The certificate was signed by Hitler.
An interesting picture here
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/2715/A-runner-carrying-the-Olympic-torch-into-the-Reich-Sports
Now that may well have been worth while turning out to see. However little did they know the ghastly horror and devastation the Nazi regime would eventually bring upon the World and itself.