The Olympic games and ethics, values, purpose and sponsership

Billy said:
You are worried that McDonalds and Coke will tarnish the image of the Olympics? Geesh, how did you feel when they held them in China and the tibetians started protesting... well at least until the cameras went off. I saw footage of that time period of Chinese soldiers shooting unarmed pilgrims hiking up a mountain to the temple with rifles... but we're worried about McDonalds?
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First world problems...
 
Oh and how can anyone think that an event that nearly the whole world unites to take part in, one that people train their entire goddamn lives for, which gives the host city and everyone else a chance to share their culture, be unethical?
 
88chaz88 said:
Oh and how can anyone think that an event that nearly the whole world unites to take part in, one that people train their entire goddamn lives for, which gives the host city and everyone else a chance to share their culture, be unethical?
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The aspects you mention aren't unethical, but many things about the Games unfortunately are. There is much corruption, destruction of land/environment, issues of poverty and social justice, etc., that come into play.

If you're interested, here's a quick link that mentions a few things: http://matadornetwork.com/sports/5-reasons-the-london-olympics-suck-ass/
 
Israel and Palestine? Different thread maybe.
I think that part of the world needs to work out their hatred for Israel.
Every time something happens, why not attack Israel? That is getting old and showing somewhat of a "more stupid" mentality the longer I look at it. Hatred in this case is stupid: like a cancer that can eat someone away from the inside out.

Some of these folk have been practicing almost a lifetime to compete in the Olympics. Bully for them, I say old bean.
I will enjoy their days of glory.

I can only hope none of those involved in the competition and training of the Olympics do not read this thread, especially while they are competing. It would impel me to back away a few days from here.
 
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Soulful said:
The aspects you mention aren't unethical, but many things about the Games unfortunately are. There is much corruption, destruction of land/environment, issues of poverty and social justice, etc., that come into play.

If you're interested, here's a quick link that mentions a few things: http://matadornetwork.com/sports/5-reasons-the-london-olympics-suck-ass/
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1. MacDonalds being Macdonalds. The Olympics needs to make money some how.

2. Do you know how much it costs MacDonalds to sponsor the Olympics? A lot. Yeah it's a bit wrong blocking other smaller companies out but my heart isn't going to bleed for the local chip store if it can't sell it's product at a one-time event.

3. How the fuck is a military presence bad? If a terrorist tried anything what are we going to do, hug them to death?

4. Oh dear, people may have to take the long route to work for the duration of the event. First world problems.

5. Yeah the Olympics cost money, it's a price worth paying for. Also not only will it bring in tourism during the event but tourism for a long time afterwards.

All the article is is a gigantic moan. Only the second issue barely touches on the event itself being unethical.
 
InvisibleJim said:
I live near London.

The Olympics is a collosal waste of money.
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Doesnt the Olympics have a tendency to leave the city it left in poor economic shape? The temporary labor that comes in to work and then settles in the area has a tendency to ruin the economy of the area - at least that is what I read in the 90's. Maybe times have changed?
 
UBERROGO said:
Doesnt the Olympics have a tendency to leave the city it left in poor economic shape? The temporary labor that comes in to work and then settles in the area has a tendency to ruin the economy of the area - at least that is what I read in the 90's. Maybe times have changed?
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Some things are more important than money.

Of course corporations and cities throw money at the Olympics in order to make money. I'm sure McDonald's will benefit from the publicity and the strangely ironic association of its product with physical excellence.

Nevertheless, the promotion of the sheer variety/diversity of sports and the elevation of esteem for sporting excellence which does not translate into the bloated pay-cheques of professional sports can only be good for an increasingly urbanised global population.

The promotion/popularisation of sports - and the good effect sport has on people should not be overlooked.
 
I think that if the elites could still distract the public by feeding people to the lions they would do so

[video=youtube;Rfd0_7BcU-0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfd0_7BcU-0[/video]

There will be a spike in flag waving nationalistic feelings while the olympics are on and then once they end people will come back down to earth with a thud as they are hit by the reality of a worsening economy that is happening because their corrupt governments are aiding and abetting the transferral of public funds into the private hands of global investors via the crooked bankers

''Go back to bed america, your government is in control....you are free to do as we tell you....you are free to do as we tell you''
 
[MENTION=1871]muir[/MENTION]-- is there anything at all in the world that isn't part of a conspiracy by the empowered elites?
 
Apone said:
@muir -- is there anything at all in the world that isn't part of a conspiracy by the empowered elites?
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Sure....but less and less lol

There have been various clashes between power blocks haven't there? Most recently a world war followed by a cold war. These conflicts polarised the world into large power blocks that have developed infrastructure to coordinate their efforts eg NATO

We have also seen the process of 'globalisation' which has largely been shaped by the policy of the pre-eminent power block after WWII which was the 'washington consensus'

The banking system became centralised under the central banking system which in turn was centralised under the Bank for International Settlements

So you're asking if there is anything in the world which hasn't been effected by the deregulation and encroachment of corporate power that has come as a result of the above processes; the answer is not a huge amount

The reason is because the corporations or rather the elite behind them want the world to be a corporate system that they can control. For this to work everyone must be dependent on the corporations for everything: food, medicine, entertainment, news, security, employment, education etc

That's why we are seeing more and more 'privatisation' because it is part of neoliberalism (washington consensus) which is a coherent policy to hand power to the corporations. Privatisation basically means that the corporations and the global investors behind them buy everything up.

That's what we have seen in the global economic crisis....the handing over of vast sums of public wealth to the corporations (indebting the public) called 'bank bailouts'. We are seeing national assets sold cheaply to the corporations in 'firesales'

In the UK they are currently trying to privatise our national health serviuce and even our police! They are already handing over much of the roles in conflict zones to 'private defence contractors'

That's why we have seen so many 'world' organisations like: the world health organisation, the world trade organisation, the world bank, codex alimentarius etc because the elite are thinking big....their actions are no longer confined along national lines, they are operating out of globalised organisations

They are one step ahead of the protestors in different countries who are still pretty divided

So to tie this into the olympics...it has been very commercialised here in the UK. There has been a campaign by 38Degrees or Avaaz which i took part in to get the big corporations not to take advantage of a tax cut offer given to them by the government.....they're gonna make bumper profits and they were still offered a free pass on tax! This is going on while the government are cracking down on 'tax dodgers'! ie if youre poor you pay tax....if you're super rich you don't

The opening ceremony started off showing rural britain and was playing music written by the mystic william blake called 'jerusalem' which was written in response to the mills that started to spring up around Britain in the industrial revolution; he called them 'dark satanic mills'. Working conditions were terrible and people were used as slave labour to try and maximise profits.

In the ceremony big chimneys spring out of the ground and workers start coming into the arena with dirt all over their faces. The purpose of this section of the ceremony was to say to the 29 million brits who watched the ceremony (that's nearly half of the population of britain): 'look how bad your anscestors had it....they worked all day under terrible conditions....they were covered in soot....doesn't it look terrible!'

The ceremony then moved to the modern period where it suddenly showed lots of happy people partying, pursuing love and listening to all the music that has come out of britain. It was all set around a house ('an englishman's home is his castle!') because it was depicting the modern nuclear family in their house watching television, going online and listening to music on various technology

The message here is: 'look how great it is now....you don't have to sweat in the mills anymore, you don't have soot on your faces and you get to play with all sorts of neat technology that our corporations make for you.....isn't modern britain great?!'

We had a conservative Prime Minister in the 1950's who said in a speech to fellow conservatives, just over a decade after WWII (which had seen millions killed and our cities flattened by bombing): "Let us be frank about it: most of our people have never had it so good".

For me....that was the message of the opening ceremony....written large for all the Brits watching....'you've never had it so good'

The significance of this is that we are facing 'austerity measures' here and a worsening economy.....so the olympics have come at a crucial time. Some will argue that they will be good for business....i would say 'yes...but who's business?'

The big corporations who have built everything will benefit from all the public spending for sure. The corporate sponsers of the olympics will benefit. Will the average Brit benefit?

Also is this rosy picture that they are painting of modern britain an accurate one?

Many people in Britain are being medicated for anxiety and many more are self medicating in a variety of ways but particularly with alcohol, which to me shows a failure to face upto the truth about our collective, mental wellbeing....or as Pink Flyod sung: 'hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way'

Sure we have many comforts and distractions nowadays but we have lost something which is the sense of community spirit. In the 1960's many of the tenements were flattened and high rises were put up which shattered the communities that had grown up in streets.

People have been pushed into their houses where they plug into a virtual reality/silicon consciousness of modern media and close themselves off from reality all aided by the corporations who want the workers atomised and alienated so that they remain as a compliant workforce

I think people are being put to sleep by the corporations. On one hand they are shown terrifying images everyday in the news but on the other hand they are soothed by the corporations who are saying to them: 'don't worry we'll protect you, we'll take care of you, just relax, take some pills, and turn on your TV....it will all be fine'

I'm not sure it is all fine....and i'm sorry if i sound a bit negative saying all this...but i don't think we're heading in the right direction that's all. Aldous Huxley had it pretty right in 'a brave new world' where a public are sated by a drug soma and by communal orgy porgies. He was privy to the ideas of the Fabian Society, so he knew the agenda of the elite who he called the 'world controllers'

Do i think we've never had it better? I think in gaining certain comforts (often at the expense of sweat shop workers in the majority world making our consumer items) we have lost our meaning and purpose in life and have lost our independance to the corporations who are trying to mother us and control us

It doesn't feel right to me...i think Bill Hicks was right

Its not all doom and gloom though....people are already beginning to reassess the state of affairs and many are looking into spiritual matters as a solution to the emptyness of materialism (not in a philosophic sense but in the sense of a consumer ideology)

Globalisation may have allowed the corporations to spread their influence but it is also bringing people around the world together and connecting them in their common humanity....there's hope but people need to reassert their independance from the corporations
 
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For the record I really like the whole idea of the Olympics. I dont watch them, but I am happy to hear when we win. I know there are some bad aspects to it, but I'll let someone else solve those problems. Overall the Olympics make me happy.
 
Muir said:
He was privy to the ideas of the Fabian Society
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Can you explain this more?

I was under the impression that the Fabian Society was a good thing. A slow progression to Socialism without violent revolution. Also, that is came out of a movement in which cultural leaders led by example - The Fellowship of the New Life (I think?).
 
Cornerstone said:
Can you explain this more?

I was under the impression that the Fabian Society was a good thing. A slow progression to Socialism without violent revolution. Also, that is came out of a movement in which cultural leaders led by example - The Fellowship of the New Life (I think?).
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It depends on how you define 'socialism'

The 'socialism' they want to see is a centrally controlled economy. Such a system would of course require an authority at the centre of it to run things. That is not how i would define 'socialism'....for me socialism is when the workers control the means of production, NOT when an elite control the means of production

What we are talking about here regarding the Fabian Society are people who have a vision for the wider society and are seeking to manifest that vision into reality. You're right in saying that they are about slow progress. They are named after the roman general Fabius Maximus who was known as 'the delayer' because of his military tactics of avoiding head-on battles with his enemies...instead he preferred to wear them down gradually over time

The Labour party is heavily influenced by the fabian society and is regarded as 'social democratic' ie as reformers rather than revolutionaries. But as we know they have been re-branded 'new labour' and are not really a working persons party at all (the gap between the rich and the poor grew during their last tenure); also Labour effectively doubled the tax of the lowest earners by scrapping the 10% tax and replacing it with 20% tax (this is while the bankers were busy making off like bandits!)

So what do these social engineers want?

There are various ideas regarding alteratives to capitalism. Some people believe in a centrally planned economy where a central authority run the economy. An example of this would be China. The western, corporate media call China a 'communist' country but that is obviously a lie as a state of true communism would not have a central authority running everything. This is orwellian doublethink at work or what Chomsky (a professor in linguistics) would call 'an abuse of language'

So what is the problem with a centrally controlled economy? Well as we all know China has certain human rights issues and the elites live a much better quality of life than the regular people (much like the pigs in Orwells book 'Animal Farm': 'all are equal, but some are more equal than others!'). So there is a big question mark over how democratic or free China is and also over how it treats people (the Tibetans know how it treats people)

The USA on the other hand has always made big claims about being a 'free-market' economy, but in reality it has become a state capitalist economy that is run centrally by the federal reserve and the government who are in cahoots and their human rights record is not good either; see for example: rendition flights, abhu graib, guantanamo bay, treatment of bradley manning, countless deaths due to 'collateral damage' in various conflicts, waterboarding, police brutality, human experimentation etc

Chomsky says that whenever you have centralised power there is corruption and exploitation. I guess we can look at our own governments and past regimes throughout history to see if this is true.

In the UK we have recently seen politicians embroiled in: 'cash for honours' scandals, PM's expenses scandals, news of the world phone hacking scandals, lying over the iraq war, libor interest rate scandal to name a few.....so it kind of makes sense that our centralised system of a two party system working in cahoots with the central bank has lead to corruption. Their behaviour has seen banks fail and instead of writing down the debts (to the global investor creditors) to the ability to pay, the corrupt politicians have saddled all of us with the debts by bailing out the banks with our taxpayers money, leading us to face 'austerity' for something we are not responsible for....so clearly Chomsky was right in saying it causes exploitation as well.

So if centralised power always causes corruption and exploitation should we listen to groups who say that what we need is a centrally controlled economy? Especially groups who are going about it quietly and behind closed doors (hardly democratic is it?)

What is more likely with groups like the fabian society is not that they want to liberate the workers and enable them to own the means of productivity in common but rather that they want to control them under a centralised system.

So who would be behind such a move? The people who would most benefit would be the elite who controlled the centrally controlled economy, which in our system would be the current elite of bankers/global creditors and the politicians who represent their interests

i don't think the Fabian society are 'socialists' at all because i don't think they want to see the workers control the means of production. I think they hide behind a socialist label but really they are just another wing of the power elites seeking new ways to control the workers

This is why i'm interested in anarchist thought...because it does not believe in centralised power....it believes that power should be exercised by the people.
 
[MENTION=1871]muir[/MENTION]

What's the solution, then?

Surely there is a way to wean ourselves off this social order. We cannot take back what has been taken from us (they are too strong). But if we can make ourselves less dependant upon those who do not have our best interests in mind, if we can replace what has been run into the ground...maybe there is still a chance.
 
Cornerstone said:
@muir

What's the solution, then?

Surely there is a way to wean ourselves off this social order. We cannot take back what has been taken from us (they are too strong). But if we can make ourselves less dependant upon those who do not have our best interests in mind, if we can replace what has been run into the ground...maybe there is still a chance.
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Absolutely i think its all to play for!

Without the workers there is no economy! However for the workers to exercise their control over the economy would require coordinated movements, whcih can only occur if people are signed upto such a thing, which in turn can only happen if people are aware of what is happening in the first place

So step one has to be about increasing awareness. Step two is organising and step three is acting. This is what all these protest movements are trying to do: educate, organise and galvanise

Life's getting tougher for most people as the economic situation worsens. This is creating a build up of negative energies. These energies have to go somewhere. There is a pressure cooker effect at the moment. You can see the pressure being let off occaisionally in bursts for example the riots that swept across England last year and the massive industrial strike action last year and the occupy movement and various other indicators

The elites know this and are putting various controls in place for example greater survelliance and police powers

In germany before WWII Hitler was in a position of power (Chancellor) but needed a way to gain complete power so he got agents to set fire to the reichstag parliament building. He then publically blamed this on his political opponents (communists) which justified him in passing the Reichstag fire decree that gave him total power under a state emergency. he had 4000 communists emprisoned on the basis of the fire which he had started in the first place!

So i think in terms of resisting the corporate dominance of our government i think its very important to avoid any such provocations! If there was some sort of state emergency the corporate elite might use that as a justification for rounding up any people they saw as 'undesirables'

So i think resistance has to be peaceful and coordinated....that's on a large scale

On an individual scale i think that there are a number of things people can do, without getting themselves into trouble! The following introduction to anarchist communism by the anarchist federation (http://www.afed.org.uk/ace/afed_introduction_anarchist_communism.pdf ) talks about two approaches: 'lifestylism' and 'dual power'

Ill discuss these more and i'm going to also look at some alternatives in the alternatives to capitalism thread when i get some time
 
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