The Original Olympics Were Nude. Ever Since Then, It’s Been All Downhill.

The first Olympic Games were skinny. Ever since then, it’s been all downward. ( Although the beach volleyball team deserves a thumbs-up for at least trying to get into the spirit of things. ) &nbsp,

In concept, this is the pinnacle of sport competition — a terrible battle of warriors, titans, speedsters, and autocrats. Following in the footsteps of the eternal demigods of yore, today’s greatest athletes may transform themselves into the legends of tomorrow, happily representing their countrymen, pushing their bodies beyond the level of earthly strength — and, if they win, they’ll been showered with beautiful gold! Ladies and gentlemen, this is the best show of the world’s most accomplished men and women. These games represent the time when all the worlds come together to laugh, praise, vision, and cry for joy in spite of the numerous hardships and hatreds that have plagued geopolitics for centuries. The Olympic Games are a captivating scene of athletic superiority that offers the thrill of victory and the horror of beat! &nbsp,

At least in theory. &nbsp,

But in exercise, it’s devolved into a crazy mixture of fanaticism, cronyism, consumerism, and corruption. The real battle is between the Olympic oligarchs to see who has the thickest budget and the athletes ‘ pockets. Whereas the candidates are striving for a smaller slice of brass, silver, or platinum, the elites are playing Hungry Hungry Hippo with silver, diamond, and billion-dollar coins.

By accident or pattern, the Olympic Games correspond with U. S. vote decades, which denotes it with a forebodingly social glow. Whether it was President Carter’s courageous refusal to allow our curling team to travel to Moscow or the ’84 Olympics when McDonald’s miscalculated the scope of the Red protest and everyone here won a zillion free burgers ( it’s dawn again in Reagan’s America! ), it’s not” only” been about activities.

And, being worldwide in character, the social component transcends our private party-jousting. The Germans of the 1930s produced scripted social theater, including the classic Olympic Flame, in which the leader travels from town to town and is urged on by the citizens. ( If you’re not well-versed in history, spoiler alert: Germans of that era were n’t very nice people. ) fire, and Hitle light were mostly created by Hitler, Joseph had e Goebbels, and Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl.

Seems a little strange to have excised from pop culture the craft, movies, music, statues, and memorials of people who once wore black, or made terrible tweets, but continue to celebrate Hitler’s genius of Aryan advertising. I mean, Kevin Spacey ( allegedly ) did some bad things trying to get a date, but I’m pretty sure the Holocaust was worse. &nbsp,

In 2019, Kate Smith’s rendition of” God Bless America” was banned from New York Yankees and Philadelphia Flyers games because someone discovered that, in the 1930s, she recorded two songs with racist lyrics. ( Clearly, she was history’s greatest monster. ) During that tumultuous time of civil reckoning— urged on by the mainstream media — numerous Civil War monuments were toppled, military bases renamed, portraits removed from colleges,” Cops” and” Dukes of Hazzard” stricken from the airwaves. Yet the Olympic Flame endures. &nbsp,

For whatever reason, it’s immune to Cancel Culture. &nbsp,

And not just immune, it’s still grotesquely profitable. The exact amount of money the Olympics generate is impossible to quantify because of the closed-door deals and suspicions of bribery, but outside estimates place it somewhere between$ 7 billion and$ 12 billion. That’s an awful lot of money changing hands — often with minimal oversight. &nbsp,

The original Olympics of 776 BC were all-nude, and they were very, very good. ( Joe Biden remembers them well. ) But in today’s Olympics, the only thing naked is the greed. &nbsp,

What was once a must-see contest between contemporary gladiators has turned into a choreographed pageant of corporate kingpins. It’s not about who runs the fastest, but which bureaucrat can steal the most loot. That’s the REAL competition.

But it’s not all bad. We still have beach volleyball.

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