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August 19, 2008
The Olympics is a spectacle that is constructed by the culture industry in terms of a television soapie that is used by the media apparatus to sell low rent advertising wrapped up in glitz and gloss. Channel Seven's Olympic coverage is bound hand and foot by drive to profit disguised by the endless replays of Stephanie Rice. Everything is for sale.
Bill Leak
Then we have to listen to that nonsense about needing to fight the British because they are winning more medals than Australia, and this shames us as a nation. This crude attempt to stir national pride, with the images of bad non-white foreigners, is an attempt to soothe the pain from these Olympics being a disaster for Australia because of the low number of gold medals.
To the win-at-all-costs lobby, sport is about how many medals of victory we can produce.The "we don't do silver crowd" say that the gleaming gold medals are important because sport is central to national self-esteem. This demands not only talent, hard work and organisation, but also serious cash. Winning, national pride and profit is all that matters.
It's the jingoism buried in the spin about finding heroism in every winner and villains in every defeat that is disturbing.
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All the talk about cash suggests that Olympic gold can be bought, that medals follow the investment of millions in training facilities and coaching, and that those nations that triumph spend more than those who do not.
If we that in the years of the credit crunch, the Government will have no spare cash to put into the Olympic pot, then we need to tap into that lottery funding, which is the only way that the sporting gap can be closed.