‘Politically Correct’ 2012 Olympics Approached ‘Fascism’ (Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Russia)

Aug 24, 2012 by WILLIAM KERN (Worldmeets.US)

Is the international Olympic movement irretrievably bloated, corrupt, hypocritical and even fascist? From the country that gave birth to the Communist Party – as Saddam Hussein might say, the mother of all bureaucracies – Yezhednevniy Zhurnal columnist Yulia Latinina calls the IOC ‘a classic example of institutionalized good intentions ossifying into a rigid bureaucracy’ that is a serial violator of what it likes to call the ‘Olympic Spirit.’

For the Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Yulia Latinina writes in small part – and I emphasize small:

I don’t like the Olympic Games. I find the Olympic movement to be a classic example of institutionalized good intentions ossifying into a rigid bureaucracy. It is the fate of all good intentions. Jesus Christ called for people to forgive one another, but Popes live in debauchery and simony. Francis of Assisi preached to the birds, but his successors have become Pharisees.

The Olympic movement is based, by and large, on a fundamental lie. According to its tenets, the competition is for amateurs – those who don’t make a living on sport.

In some cases the rule is relaxed, but overall it is still adhered to.

The truth is that the rule has long become self-righteous hypocrisy, because all athletes who participate at the Olympics train 8-10 hours a day. They simply have no time for anything else. In fact, this means that athletes can’t make a living doing what they do, so must live off his state or Olympic committee. Thanks to this rule, the movement is led by clerks and not athletes.

There are several other consequences to the rule.

First, each official wants to expand his organization. In the case of the IOC, this leads to an ever-multiplying number of sports, most of which, mind you, are of little interest to spectators and are inherently unprofitable, but give Olympic officials the right to demand ever-more money, which nations wanting to participate in the medal race are compelled to continue to give. Funny that curling is an Olympic sport, but karate is not.

Second, bureaucracies are not known for building systems for sustaining themselves. As a result, the Olympic Games are becoming more expensive, and Olympic venues increasingly disposable, which is perfectly acceptable to the bureaucracies of the host countries.

Third, every bloated bureaucracy sooner or later leads to corruption. The motives for the IOC’s selection of Sochi [Russia] as host of the 2014 Winter Olympics are to say the least suspicious. I expect that such decisions, accompanied by follow-up vacations by Prince Albert to hospitable future Olympic sites, will become increasingly common.