“Bread crumbs”(perhaps how you got here)

The Desperate Super-Powers

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Tomorrow the Olympics begin, and we will have the entertaining spectacle of two super -powers (as if being an ordinary old "great power" is not good enough) that will both be apprehensive.

For China, there is the insecurity caused by centuries of being treated badly by the rest of the World. The Chinese are thus very sensitive, and any problem will be grounds for an overreaction. This is curious, because at the moment China is plainly the strongest and healthiest nation on Earth. (That's no great recommendation - it has a wretched human-rights record, is a major polluter, and exploits poorer nations mercilessly. Unlike the United States.)

The United States, the fading super-power, is not so much apprehensive because of the possibility that our Glorious Super Basketball Team might lose (we've become used to that), but because, given the weakness of our economy and currency, our athletes might have to take to washing dishes to pay their way home. Face it, we are now a little shabby and shoddy, thanks to more than thirty years of Reaganomics and the philosophy of decay and irresponsibility.

As to the future of our basketball team, I'm not optimistic. The last time we tried this Olympic thing, we did poorly. Interestingly, we are still almost certainly invincible in another sport: softball. Our softball team is not likely to be seriously challenged. The women on that team play well, play together, and do it for little to no financial reward. There might be a lesson there. But, you say, "I'd rather watch paint dry than women's sports." Well, paint drying can be kind of exciting. At least it's constructive and useful, unlike the NBA and the NFL.

 All text on this page is the work of J W Durham and is licensed only under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Other licensing terms may be available. E-mail me