If the world wants to see what living in a totalitarian society will be like, it has only to observe the Olympic Games currently being held in China.
So far, this seems like the most joyless Olympics ever. The facilities themselves look to be world-class, but venues with man-made snow surrounded by barren snowless landscapes are a depressing metaphor for the soullessness of totalitarianism and its thin veneer of humanity.
Reports of journalists being forcefully moved by Chinese security forces shows how oppressive a totalitarian society can be.
Athletes resorting to the use of burner phones to avoid the monitoring of their conversations by Chinese security is a perfect illustration of how a totalitarian society threatens personal freedom.
Stories of the poor living conditions provided to athletes who fail the Chinese Covid testing protocols and who are isolated in Covid internment camps provide evidence of the impersonal and uncaring nature of totalitarian regimes towards those who fall out of favor.
The absence of any spectators other than a select group of Chinese creates an eerie atmosphere that in a way underlines the inhospitable nature of contemporary China towards anyone who is not Chinese.
The fact that the U.S. Speaker of the House feels compelled to tell American athletes to keep their mouths shut to avoid retribution by the Chinese government makes it clear just how much China has successfully intimidated the rest of the world.
The pictures of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping cozying up together reinforces the point that these Olympic Games are less about sports than they are about global politics. Their unified focus on retaining totalitarian power has stolen the humanity and history of their rich cultures from their own people as well as from the rest of the world.
This is likely to prove to be a soulless, heartless Olympics that does nothing to relieve the geopolitical tensions created by China and Russia but instead serves to reinforce them.
The fact that this is the second Olympics hosted by China in less than 15 years confirms the suspicion that the International Olympic Committee has somehow fallen under the sphere of Chinese influence in the same way as has the World Health Organization.
I feel sorry for the athletes who have diligently trained through the limitations imposed by Covid to compete in the Olympic Games. They deserve more recognition, attention, and appreciation than they are likely to receive.
Part of this has to do with the fact that this is China’s Olympics. The abuse, the lies, the theft, the weaponization of a virus – all the self-serving actions of the Chinese government over the past decades have cast a pall over the Olympics that even the temporary closure of polluting Chinese factories cannot eliminate.
Part of this has to do with the depressing willingness of American businesses and their associates to ignore Chinese immorality and sell out American interests to realize profits from the Chinese market.
Part of this has to do with the suspicion that the Democratic party leadership is somehow indebted to China and will not speak up on behalf of democratic freedom, let alone take action to counter the insidious nature of totalitarianism.
No one believes anymore in the Olympic ideal of bringing about global unity through competition, except perhaps the athletes themselves.
China’s Olympics may end up revealing the true nature of China to the world despite all the efforts being made by the Chinese Communist Party to glorify its system and obscure its failures. This could prove to be more important than the number of gold medals won if we are not too afraid to face the truth.