It's No Game

Beijing 2008 sponsors @ April 2007, xiaming

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

-Juvenal, Satire X

I think it's about six years since I ditched television and I've even stopped watching the few shows that I used to keep up with by streaming or downloading (South Park, Top Gear, et al), so surely I needn't say I haven't watched the Olympics or the Paralympics. I'm aware that under new laws such action is now classed as treason (and you're not allowed to link to the IOC if you have critical words to say), but Benedict Arnold becomes a hero when you cross the right border. When the Arab Spring hit some of the Gulf States the monarchic governments decreed more bread for the people, not unlike Ceaușescu's ad-libbing mere days before his execution, but aren't they forgetting the circuses?


The circuses have long been with us. Whether it's in our own living rooms where the seats all face the television purporting to show us programmes about reality, or in the high street where each building is adorned with the logo of a multinational brand offering racks and shelves of third world mass market produce, the last thing anyone wants to do is turn up for jury duty. There's nothing wrong with entertainment. Compared to those of us born or integrated into industrialised economies, hunter-gatherers have unprecedented levels of leisure time, but they know well that they can't orgasm all the time or they'll starve. We're well entitled to time away from labour - this isn't some Calvanist tract - but the problem is that the entertainment delivered is to the benefit of someone else.

Back at the last World Cup I wrote about the infiltration of business into sport. This year it's the Olympics and it's being held here (the other side of the country, though it may as well be on the Moon). Everyone knows by now that the event has brought in a lot of money. One question: for whom? Most of the people in the world are not the heads of major corporations specialising in ecological disasters or low grade franchise restaurants. Still fewer are athletes who will be competing at the games. I am not arguing that athletes should not be supported just as the arts and communities are supported by the distribution of money via taxation. To be specific: still fewer are professional athletes. I remind you that the Games are for the participation of amateurs.

There are now more Paralympic competitors who are full-time athletes rather than competing as a hobby, Mr Spence told the BBC.

The shift from amateur to professional is why so many records are being broken in what has historically been seen as a second tier Olympics. They're not truly professional in that they aren't paid to compete, but show me an amateur that can fund their hobby without working for a living.

This is the transformation that has been seen so many times before. The drive toward a greater spectacle, especially for broadcast events, leads to an increasing inflow of money in order to pay for it all. As the cash sloshes around the organising committees the sport becomes increasingly distant from the grassroots which it is supposed to nurture. Finally it is re-purposed into a machine for the promotion of capitalism - tourism, advertising, construction are all reasons the circus moves each year. If it were about sport it would be held in one place with all the necessary and complete facilities and have one logo every year. You might remember it - five interlocking rings. I speak as someone who used to enjoy running the 100 metres for myself and no-one else.

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