August 19, 2004
Whitman's Sampler
Leon got grumpy at Mel so he went home, so I'm back online!
The Olympics is like this fantastic boxed assortment of exotic biscuits that comes but once every four years. I feel compelled to gorge, metaphorically ripping the wrapping and discarding extraneous cardboard. So I watch the Olympics pretty much solidly for the whole two weeks. It’s really neat! Not only do I get to see sports I don’t see often, but I also get to watch sports that in some cases I didn’t even know existed!
Sport, when it is played by the very, very skilled, is amazingly beautiful. The athlete’s bodies, their relationship with their environment, and the physical shapes and forces that are formed and displayed – it’s quite lovely. And the best thing is, you’re not just watching one stand-out performer among a field of clearly lesser participants. You get to watch the very best from all over the world up against each other, so they’re all very very good.
(Except that NZ boxer. That was kind of embarrassing really. He wasn’t boxing! Didn’t someone check that he could box before he went?)
It makes me feel all enthused. About sport, travel, people, countries, tourist-gouging – it’s all painted with a rosy glow. I’d love to go to the next games, Beijing in 2008 would be fantastic. It’d be so cool to see it in person.
It must be impossible to be an impartial ref. Or maybe that’s just my base nature rearing its sly little head. *wink* But I really couldn’t see me being totally fair. I’d always sneakily help one side to win. As evidence I present the fact that even when I play both sides of the chessboard I secretly favour one. That’s partly because I am really bad at chess so at least cheating means that there is a clear winner. I fear becoming locked in a stalemate against my most cunning adversary, me. It’s like I’m always one head astep of me.
And that is why I will have to regretfully decline the IOC’s pleading faxes.
I have an interesting experiment that someone could nick for a science-fair project. What would happen if you had constant, subtle advertising running in the home in form of LCD screens – a bit like digital clocks? Probably very simple: like “Buy - *flash* - Coke” repeated, a different message on say 6 screens placed unobtrusively in a room where several hours each day is spent by each subject. Would it influence people’s behaviour without them being aware of the stimulus? It should be measurable, especially if you make the message something like “choose red” or “choose 42” and then run a controlled series of tests before and after. Anyway.
Tonight I was watching TV and a news update came on – and some moron in the background in the studio was caught on camera stuffing his face with noodles! How unprofessional! I thought. What’s that idiot doing?! Then I realised it was an ad. Huh. All that indignation just kinda blew up in my face. I’m sure it’s not good for my health. Maybe I should sue the network.
Photos of my flat, the local graveyard, and the snow:
I hope you are warm enough! Snow means very cold! Fun to have around tho.
Posted by: giffy at August 19, 2004 01:01 PMI know what you mean about the Olympics watching!
Did you see the crazy kayaking-in-fake-white-water that was on last night? Neither Lee nor I knew it was an olympic sport and it was *so good*!
I totally want to compete in that event.
Posted by: Jenni at August 19, 2004 01:54 PMyeah i agree about that boxer. I think they said "so you go in a ring and do stuff right?" and he said "yes i do kick-" and they broke back in and went "nah nah s'cool, just needed to know that. off you go!"
watched the basketball tonight, me and margie were screaming and on the edges of our seats for the last 40 minutes...which i think is how long it took to play the last 10 minutes!! time outs are wierd :)
i love the olympics, thats why when i grow up , im going to be an olympic athlete :)
I've just read all your recent entries together. Re: Civil Union Bill there's now a group opposed to the religious groups who are opposed to the bill called "Hate is not a Family Value". So when Destiny Church et al march on parliament the other group is marching too. Should be fun!!
Posted by: Emba at August 20, 2004 11:38 AMwas it "not a family value" - i thought u said it was "hate is not a family member", Emba!! *l* i thought it was rather poignant
Posted by: Zephfi at August 22, 2004 12:23 AMI'm pleased to see some response to Destiny's march, but it gets to me about the "Hate" thing because I don't know if christians with that viewpoint, and the wider public, necessarily see it as hate. They always seem to back it up with the "hate the sin, love the sinner" bit. And I guess that's fair enough. They can view homosexuality or gay marriage or chocolate-covered-raisins as sinful if they like, doesn't bother me.
BUT what does bother me is that the government should not, in a democracy, be:
a) dictated to by any one group within the society; or
b) engaged in discrimination without logical cause
and both those conditions are failed in this instance. I don't mind abiding by the laws and social mores of the society I live in. If I lived in a society that expected women to walk around with their breasts revealed, I would probably follow the custom of respect to my neighbours. But I wouldn't live in a society that actively discriminated based on gender.
Many, many sad people in NZ think that the country would be better if we got rid of everyone with a brown skin. Even if that was the majority opinion of the population, should the governemnt then practice genocide? Democracies are sometimes more that the will of the majority - they are also the preservation of liberal thought through times when the fear or anger of the global population threatens to unravel the progress civilisation has made.
We need to preserve democracies to guard our progress against the mood of the mob. It's like investing our sanity in the democracy bank - even if we go temporarily nuts, democracy should hopefully prevent us from winding up totally bankrupt.
In this case I think the government needs to be strong enough to stand against the fundamentalist christian minority and do what humanity and logic tell them. The cost of allowing gay marriage is virtually nil. The benefits are potentially huge.
Christians opposed (vigorously) the granting of the vote to women. They wrote letters to the papers, held rallies and preached it from the pulpit. The Christian population way back then was far larger, proportionally, than it is now. Our government then had the foresight and sense of justice to stand against them - I hope it does this time too.
*whew!* that's practically another entry all on its own! :)
Posted by: phreq at August 23, 2004 03:40 PMThanks
Posted by: Online Home Loans at November 19, 2005 09:23 PM