The Case for NOT Boycotting the Olympics

Great article. Thanks for the link Jeb.

Excellent. My pleasure, Chris.

Jeb, good article and thanks. I don't think the Olympics should ever be boycotted (unless we were in an actual war with the host country). I think the Olympics are a way to call a time out on our political and other differences. This allows us to see that we do have a lot in common and that no matter how bitter things may be, it's a reminder that we can work things through.

However I think protesting the Olympic torch on its trip is a good way to keep up pressure on certain types of activities that the host country may engage. Whereas I don't think it's a good venue to protest the torch for strictly political disagreements. I do think boycotting the torch to highlight universal issues is appropriate. I think these universal issues include human rights abuses and environmental concerns that the host country engages in. These issues will never go away and there's only one answer to human rights and environmental abuses: stop them.

So let's call that time-out and come together in a way that allows all participating countries to showcase their athletes' talents.

To boycott the Olympics would be similar to parents who are going through a messy divorce to take out their differences on their children. Athletes aren't the cause of the political and economic differences between us and China. But they can help keep our perspective.

Good to hear from you, stockboy. You make a number of good points. I'll pass this along to Matt, who wrote the original post.

Thanks, Jeb!

I wrote my own post about this subject at Why We Worry. I bring in the subject of our debt to China and our own human rights problems...

I think Chriswww strikes the right balance. Boycotting is too extreme and provocative. Protests by non-government groups would keep the ressure on China to rethink its politcies.