OLYMPICS SERVE TO PROMOTE NATIONALISM
Nickolas Conrad

The Daily Evergreen
5
Aug 24 2008
WA

The United States is not the best country in the world. The 2008
Olympics should be making this quite evident now that China has
pulled ahead in the medal race. I am sure that coming in second is
unacceptable to all the flag-waving Americans who take pride in our
country’s domination of other nations in any trivial way.

It is important to keep a perspective on what a national, physically
competitive enterprise entails. The Olympics is a summation of
human physical achievement divided by national borders. It is
entertainment. Every four years we congratulate ourselves on how
far we can throw a spear, toss a disc or swim segmented lanes of pool
water. It does not bring the world together to create peace or harmony;
rather, the Olympics is used as a showcase for political egotism.

As far as bringing greater harmony and collaboration, the 1936
Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany by the Nazi Party, should serve as
an example. The Nazis held and won the 1936 Olympics; the U.S. took
a somewhat distant second. The Nazis flaunted their racial theories
to other nations and led us into the conflagration of World War
II. Sports did not create greater harmony. If anything, the Olympics
made the situation worse.

Sports are a cathartic expression of our aggressive natures that
revel in violence and domination. Sports do not bring people to the
negotiation table. Russia is not pulling out of Georgia any faster
because they feel any respect for American athletes.

When I watch the Olympics, I see a contest that brings out blind
ethnocentric patriotism. Everyone becomes uncritical and gives their
undying devotion to their country’s honor. This patriotism causes us
to wish for our opponents’ utter humiliation. All I see is people
waving their flags, complimenting themselves and denigrating their
competitors.

The Olympics is an embodiment of the 19th century notion of nationalism
based on the ethnic, geographic and linguistic heritage of different
people. Having studied the political history of the 19th and 20th
century, I am extremely suspicious of naive nationalism. Most of
the wars of the 20th century can be attributed to nationalistic
fervor. The genocide of the Armenians by the Turks, the World Wars
and wars of resistance and liberation are all results of violent
nationalistic fervor.

Let us take a moment and put aside our patriotic self-love and reflect
on China’s lead in the Olympics to remind ourselves the U.S. is not
the greatest country in the world. Dominating others through physical
competition, economic arrangements or military does not qualify any
nation as the greatest.

We are taught as children to pledge our allegiance to the flag. As
we grow up, we fill our time watching Hollywood films or events such
as the Olympics that are blindly patriotic and one-sided. Since the
U.S.’ establishment in 1776, it took us 89 years to end slavery and
189 years to make equality a reality in law. It took us 144 years
to give women the right to vote. To expand the U.S. territories,
wars of aggression were fought against American Indians, the British,
Spanish, Mexican and Filipinos. We dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese
civilians, indiscriminately killing two entire cities of men, women
and children.

I appreciate America and all the opportunities it has provided
me, yet I will not let the media brainwash me into unquestioning
patriotism. We have to question even the most sacred icons of our
identities to truly see ourselves for who we are.