Athletes 10 - Politicians 0

Why Canada Was
Lifted Up By The Olympics

I am personally not a sports fan, but have always become a hockey fan when Stanley Cup time rolls around, or a football fan on the day of the Grey Cup. However, that is the limit of my interest in sports. I don’t follow players, teams or statistics.

The Olympics was simply a large corporate promotion, put on at the taxpayers expense in my humble opinion and is more about selling product than it is about showcasing (what used to be) amateur sport.

The event is also the modern day version of ‘the circus’ which has been used by governments since at least Rome to distract and amuse the mob. Providing a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and the circus, has been a very effective means of controlling the masses and maintaining civil order for a long time. We simply are too smart and sophisticated in this present age to realize we are living in the same type of society having no real dimension or purpose to it.

We have become a nation of consuming ‘units’ which exist only to consume products we can’t afford. We are being led by leaders with no vision. The best any of them can do is keep juggling figures, spending money we don't have and raising taxes.

Our mundane existence gives very little to cheer about, so when someone we don’t know can hurdle headlong down an iced raceway 3/100th’s of a second faster than someone else, that is reason enough to get to our feet, sing the anthem, wave the flag and cheer our heads off!

Compare that to the excitement of having yet another politician be they municipal, provincial or federal explain why they have to dip their hand a little deeper into your pocket and it becomes evident why we get so excited about athletes.

Athletes clearly demonstrate they know what they are doing, and that they do it very well.

Now, if we could only say the same for our 'leaders'.