The Olympic Games and Totalitarian regimes

[Agent 008]

Should the olympic games in the totalitarian states be boycotted? Should the Olympic Committee even allow such countries to have the olympics?

It's a tough question. The 1936 olympic games in Germany played a big role in legitimizing the nazi regime in Germany, and spreading the ideas of fascism. They showed the world that Germany is a healthy, energetic nation and that there's nothing wrong with it. In my opinion, it would've been best for the Germany, for the world and for the history of the Olympic Games if those Olympic games got boycotted and didn't get carried out.

Then again.. who is to decide which regime is totalitarian and which is not? After all, the people voted the Nazis in.
Take China. Would it actually help the Chinese if the Olympics got boycotted?

One could say that only aggressive regimes shouldn't be allowed to host the Olympics. But where does that leave the USA, the UK and most of the "civilised" world? Although I guess we could have the games in Japan and Switzerland all the time..

Thoughts?

[launchpad]

The Games should not have been given to China.

Boycotting the games would not work. It didn't work in Moscow, It won't work in Beijing.

That being said having the games there does seem to shed some more international attention to what's going on.

[Big Steamers]

This belongs in politics.

[Agent 008]

Originally Posted by launchpad

The Games should not have been given to China.

Boycotting the games would not work. It didn't work in Moscow, It won't work in Beijing.

That being said having the games there does seem to shed some more international attention to what's going on.

It didn't work in terms of pressuring the government to do certain actions - but it did kind of "de-legitimise" their actions.

E.g. with the Nazi Germany, the Olympics gave a huge boost to Nazi ideology.

[DonMuttoni]

Originally Posted by Agent 008

E.g. with the Nazi Germany, the Olympics gave a huge boost to Nazi ideology.

I knew I'd seen this load of shinanigins before! thanks for placing it....

[launchpad]

Originally Posted by Agent 008

It didn't work in terms of pressuring the government to do certain actions - but it did kind of "de-legitimise" their actions.

E.g. with the Nazi Germany, the Olympics gave a huge boost to Nazi ideology.

So do you think having the Olympics in China will make more people supportive of having an oppressive Communist totalitarian government? I don't know, I think maybe having them there offers them up for the world to see what's really going on. I think we can expect to see some sort of mass protest/action in Beijing when the Olympics is going on followed by an immediate crackdown - the protesters are probably hoping for a violent crackdown - which will sully the Chinese reputation even more.

[13th tribe]

the olympics are about coming together. If a bunch of people decide to call out a country for rights violations or something similar its a good stage to do it on.

[chompchompchomsky]

There is an important difference between the Munich and Bejing games. When the games were held in Munich, it was BEFORE the holocaust, BEFORE the invasions and BEFORE the madness. China, on the other hand, seems to be coming OUT of that stage, and into a more civilized one. I stress SEEMS, as one never actually knows, but I can definantly see why Olympic organizers would not withdraw from Bejing.

[Agent 008]

Originally Posted by chompchompchomsky

There is an important difference between the Munich and Bejing games. When the games were held in Munich, it was BEFORE the holocaust, BEFORE the invasions and BEFORE the madness. China, on the other hand, seems to be coming OUT of that stage, and into a more civilized one. I stress SEEMS, as one never actually knows, but I can definantly see why Olympic organizers would not withdraw from Bejing.

I see your point.

[Rawk]

Firstly, I don't agree that the Munich Olympics were a boost to the fascist ideology. I'd say the most memorable athlete was Jesse Owens, an african-american who won four gold medals, kinda humiliating for an ideology based on white racial supremacy.
Secondly, what would have been achieved by a boycott of the German olympics? During 1936 the world's attention was on Germany and as a result the Nazi's stepped down anti-semitic propaganda and violence to try and make a good impression, of course this was reversed after the Olympics but it still gave many jews and other targets of Nazism a break and a chance to get out of the country (although some people actually returned as they thought the Nazis had changed). It was a positive thing and I'd be amazed to find a historian that would argue the case that a boycott of the games would have achieved any kind of positive effects.

As for China and this other political bullshit. The whole point of the Olympics is to bring the world together through sport, something that should be a-political. We are supposed to look past our differences in culture, politics, ideology, economics and unite in fraternal competiton. Using it as an excuse to lecture the host nation about how they are different and thus worse than our own country completely goes against the nature of the games and frankly I find it embarassing; Bush's rant in Thailand was ill-timed and offensive. How would America react if various nation's leaders took the Olympics as an opportunity to criticise the War in Iraq, economic disparity and human rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay? Badly I think, and it would be even more ridiculous to suggest that such criticisms would have any positive effect whatsoever.