I am thoroughly anti nationalism/patriotism. The Olympics are just a manifestation of the "my country is better than your country" mentality that's disgusting. Personally, I see it as nearly Hitlerian. We can't be proud of our government, the 'progress' we've made, or anything else so we're forced to settle for cheering on people that were forced into intense training and physical modifications to try and run faster/jump higher/hit harder. It's teeth-gnashing how much people are obsessed with this. I thought I was the only person who thought this until I read this Morrissey quote:
"I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The "dazzling royals" have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the "dazzling royals", laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought.
As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP."
Thank God I'm not the only one.
Is Morrissey the coolest person ever or what?