
The greatest idea of all time may be the person who thought up the idea of people all over the world coming together and competing in sporting events. They thought up the Olympics.
The world is divided in so many ways and has been for countless decades, and yet every four years athletes from around the globe gather in one place and compete in different sports. There is scoring and timing and there are Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal winners. A whole bunch of other contenders don’t win medals. We respect all of them for putting themselves out there, for trying, for sacrificing so much of their lives to get better at their crafts.
It’s pure. Usually, there isn’t ambiguity. If you touch the wall first in the swimming race, you win the Gold and it doesn’t matter which country you are from. There are no debates. No country can just stand up and claim they touched the wall first if their swimmer didn’t. Rules matter and all countries cooperate for the most part.
This is so unlike politics where who wins and who loses often isn’t clear, or it gets misconstrued or questioned and we wonder who’s telling the truth and often we find out the truth isn’t valued or shared.
Psychological manipulation, rhetorical misdirection, and trashing the character of an opponent is the game. Politicians become preoccupied with trying to convince you that their opponent is bad when it’s not clear if that’s true. You know the person saying it just wants power, and people who want power aren’t that attractive because if you want power you want control and that’s selfish.
This is not typically how the Olympics go down. Some cheating has gone on. Drugs have been taken to enhance performance and that muddies the results. Countries jockey to claim they’ve won the most medals as a sign of world dominance. But for the most part, the competition takes place in a fair way, and those who are best prepared, most skilled, and feel the best on a given day end up winning medals.
The top three stand on podiums and medals are hung around their necks. The national anthem of the Gold medal winner gets played. This is a perfect ritual – maybe the best of any the world has ever thought up — that should never change.
The best and most deserving win. Not the best at insulting their opponents. Not the meanest. Not the ones who are willing to stoop the lowest in their behavior to get an advantage.
Why can’t Olympic values and principles be applied to politics? When a politician runs for office, how come they can’t compete honestly and show how good they are at what they do, how much they can uplift us, how selfless they really are instead of how selfless they say they are?
How come the whole world can come together every four years and get along and focus on going faster and higher – honorable ideals – but in politics everything gets so much more complicated and ugly, where merit gets displaced by mind games?
Over the next two weeks, I’m going to watch the Olympics because it’s about honesty and truth and hard work and fellowship and people from all over the world getting along, being spirited and supportive.
After that, the American election will start to take center stage. And I refuse to engage in any of it. It’s nasty, phony, and brings out the worst in human character. I am not going to subject myself to what I believe isn’t about being good to others and fair competition; it’s about tearing your opponent down so you can gain more power.
Why would I want to follow that? Why would anybody?
People seeking power will do all kinds of things to get it – including lying, cheating, and hurting other people – which is about as antithetical to Olympic ideals as anything I can think of.
Bring on the Olympics, the best show of human character we get to witness. Screw political elections which bring out the worst things about humanity.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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