Can't believe no one mentioned the best work on 'bullshit jobs' out there - "Player Piano" by Kurt Vonnegut. Back in 1952 he already guessed it all:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)
There's an old joke from Communist times. It goes like this -- and old communist argues:
- What do you mean, we don't respect human rights? Of course we respect human rights! Why, I can provide the name of that human right now!
Same goes for 'celebrating human achievements' you've mentioned. No such thing will happen. There's only one achievement allowed into the celebration - the achievement of United Russia Party and its leader. Whatever the emotional positive externalities these Game might produce, all will be harvested by state propaganda.
"The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong. Everyone knows politics interconnects with everything for “politics” is simply the Greek for “to do with the people”.
OK, yes, it's this attitude which I was disagreeing with:
Sports and politics may be innately interconnected, but that doesn't mean we should seek to make sports even more political.
To have a requirement that the Olympics is hosted only in countries with political approval by [Stephen Fry/Western cultural values] would prevent it from having any global influence. Should the Olympics ultimately alternate between the EU and the US? Obviously not.
It's a good thing that political and cultural values of a country are not or are minimally part of the bidding and selection process.
If you're not aware, the IOC requires bidding countries to commit to IOC laws - which include special treatment and legal exemptions for athletes and visitors who may not otherwise be welcome. Although not without problems, I find that a sufficient way to make countries fall in line with the Olympic tradition without directly interfering with their local political process.
"Make sports even more political" -- this is our disagreement, yes. You think sports and politics are somehow 'independent things' -- but they aren't. Best parallel would be: money and wealth and private property and capital and production are all connected. Communists said they really aren't, and should be made 'less connected' - somehow, they want to have production without everything else. Well, we all know it doesn't work this way. Same here -- you can't artificially disconnect 'politics' from 'sport'. It will remain connected... because it is connected!
I've never read the Olympics code, list of principles etc, but I can imagine there's something about human dignity and freedom and liberty? Well, liberty should be a lowest common denominator. I.e. -- your culture allows some people to enslave and oppress other people, and deny them life, property and dignity? Well your culture is a piece of shit and you don't host Olympics. Easy! Cultural bias? Sure - cultural bias of human against blood-sucking goblins doesn't sound too bad.
(Russian here) - Fry is 100% correct in his assessment. I pay a lot of attention to the wickedness of Russian politics, and, quite frankly, LBGTQ are right there at the very edge of Russian political struggle, being one of the very few groups whose very survival demands liberty (others may get by through kowtowing to the political powers, but they don't have that option). They are hated by an overwhelming majority of Russians in the province (same majority that keeps voting Putin into power), because of all the fear, lies and propaganda spread by the state. These Games must be stopped, indeed.
Thanks for your inside assessment. You said the same majority votes Putin into power...do you have anything you could cite for this, or is it your observation?
Google for his approval rating - it's high, even if you adjust it for all the rigging and such. Short story is: collapse of USSR brought a lot of suffering and despair to Russians (of course, there was no other way for it to end, but it's not something most Russians acknowledge or even think about -- "no time to think, gotta work, feed my kids"). Putin succeeded in building on this fear and nostalgia for times of security (which USSR did offer, however monstrously unsustainable). And one of the main unofficial slogans was, and is -- "liberty is bad for Russia; evil people, especially Americans, use it to poison our people".
Of course, NSA spying or drone killings makes it harder to fight the propaganda -- all these grotesquely anti-American thing are pictured as the "real face of America" -- and good luck defending liberty in that light...
I can't believe no one is talking about how this all relates to revelations from the US state department cable leaks. The cables showed that the US State Department is actively involved in advancing anti-traditionalist groups in many countries. One of the cables went on quite a bit about how greater efforts are needed in France to promote multiculturalism and homosexual acceptance because so much of the nation remains traditionalist.
To a certain degree here Putin is in fact combating a propaganda arm of the US government that operates in his country. Remember Pussy Riot and the bizarre media reactions to their stunt? That shit was obviously western orchestrated when you looked at the reactions and the people involved.
I can think of no surer way to impair the cause of tolerance social acceptance than the stuff the USG is doing. Of course it's going to provoke a backlash.
Do understand, that no "traditionalist values" can contradict the principle of liberty. People should be free to follow whatever values they want to follow. Heck, I'm an ultra-traditionalist Orthodox Christian, and I consider Pussy Riot to be the best thing that happened to Russia in decades. I chose my traditionalism freely - there can be no real traditionalism without freedom, only slavery and deformity.
Rubbish, there are plenty of gays in Russia. Have you even looked at Soviet Realism? You do realise most of those artists were gay and their pictures had a secondary meaning?
Can't agree more (Russian here). In Russia it's all about putting up a show of anti-americanism, because that's what the voters like (the one thing that brings back memories of relative security of late Soviet days). Think Osama bin Laden granting asylum to Snowden in some remote Taliban camp.
For Russia it's more about showing the world that they are the only country that can't be intimidated by the U.S and thus that they are the only hold out against American world domination. Any other country would have handed him over eventually. I'm sure the Chinese and Central Asian governments are thinking that without the Russians to counterbalance things geopolitically they'd have to all be client states of the U.S.
I'm not sure China would care. They'd just become the second superpower (which, I would argue, they already are). Their economy is much larger than Russia's, their trade relations diverse (the US isn't even their #1 trading partner), their land more habitable (though smaller), their technology better, they have a large army and nuclear arsenal, and they're in an ideal location to put up significant resistance against US incursions.
Plus China is in a great position geologically (if that makes sense). The Asia-Pacific region is only going to get more important as the years go on, and China is right in the thick of it all, while Russia is camped out with Siberia.
Who knows though, once the Arctic ice sheets melt maybe that position will become more important than it appears.
Think Osama bin Laden granting asylum to Snowden in some remote Taliban camp.
Strange, I am Russian and have been living in Russia for 5 years now (and before that for 20 years in the UK and Holland). And I cannot agree with your Taliban analogy even remotely. Actually, life in Russia today in some ways feels more free than in Europe. For example you don't need to be politically correct (self-censoring) when expressing your private or political views. And one can still (for now) smoke in pubs here ;)
I'm sure Russia is a fine place if you're not a journalist, particularly invested in the democratic process, gay or in any other LGBTQ group. Why, it's all worth it for smoking in pubs!
Right. In Russia you can pretty much insult anyone as much as you like. Just hope they don't have a traumatic handgun on them.
Give me a break. Nobody moves back to Russia, because they are free to smoke at the pubs there.
I was also born in Russia and 3 years ago, I spent a year there. It is just as shit country as it has always been. Nothing changed. It's got some new paint on the facade.
I hear there are no homosexuals in Russia. They are all very manly and masculine. Even the women. So there is no reason for a Russian man to be homosexual.
So Russians feel sympathetic and supporting lending a help to a mere human who just tried to help his country and now his country hunts him down like a wild animal.
But that is somehow bad, eh? o_O
P.S. Hey, Alex, why stop at Osama?! You forgot to mention Hitler! That would be more dramatic, and equally cheap brainwashing tactic.
This should not be news, though, right? Consumers can only be trusted to be concerned for their own best interests. More than that -- only about their own immediate and simple best interests (i.e. we consumers will totally vote for a destructive political initiative, if it promises short-term gain for us personally, while crippling the economy for decades).
So, any advocacy of free software ideology which is aimed at the 'masses' and the 'people' is doomed to fail. It has to be aimed at the minority of more responsible and educated agents - who, in turn, can (and should!) care about these more distant and noble and sophisticated goals, while not being angry or judgmental toward the 'consumer', who isn't championing such lofty goals.
You have to walk alone, and should expect isolation and hardship, essentially. Wasn't it always the case?
A much better, if also significantly longer, exposition.