Excellent Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom does it well:
"Has there ever been an Olympics like this? So impressive and so suspicious at the same time? From the Opening Ceremonies, which set a high for visual awesomeness, yet were questioned about lip-syncing children and video-enhanced fireworks; to the gymnastics, in which China hauled in massive gold, but was suspected of using underage children; to the track, in which China’s biggest sports star, Liu Xiang, lined up in the blocks and then pulled out with a sudden injury, which some claim was a national tragedy and others claim was a ruse to avoid losing to a Cuban rival; to the city of Beijing itself, which was full of celebration, yet was virtually devoid of predicted protests because, according to the government, the protesters hadn’t filed the proper paperwork.
I have never, in a 16-day period, witnessed so much and been less sure of what I’ve seen."
Indeed. But we saw some terrific individual and team performances; and I hope also more Americans were made aware of China's human rights abuses, and both came to understand that the Chinese people have a lot to offer us, but their government is a dictatorship and we must continue to remember just what that means.
UPDATE: here's a way to remember what it means--read the Washington Post's Tom Boswell and his summation of the Olympics. Read the whole thing--but for now, begin here:
"The current Chinese culture doesn't just reveal itself in the middle of the night. All day long, every 20 minutes (to the split second), hundreds of buses run back and forth from media hotels to the Olympic venues. There's even a special "Olympic lane" for all official traffic to the Games. Because the Chinese are obsessed with appearing efficient, the number, size and frequency of buses comically exceed the need. I often had a bus to myself. However, I can barely believe what I saw Saturday when, by accident, I had to return to my hotel at 1 p.m., when almost no reporter has reason to leave the Olympics. Several football fields full of buses all pulled out simultaneously, headed to hotels all over Beijing, theoretically transporting media. But I was the only rider on any bus I saw. Dozens were empty. They still made their runs. They still wasted fuel. They still clogged traffic. But nobody, in an activity as state-controlled and Communist Party-scrutinized as these Olympics, would deviate from the original plan, no matter how stupid it might be. In decades at The Post, this is the first event I've covered at which I was certain that the main point of the exercise was to co-opt the Western media, including NBC, with a splendidly pretty, sparsely attended, completely controlled sports event inside a quasi-military compound. We had little alternative but to be a conduit for happy-Olympics, progressive-China propaganda. I suspect it worked."
Remember Boswell's anecdote. Because this is the problem with communism, with rigid state control, with rigid state planning and bureaucracy. It leads to waste, to doing stupid things merely because they are in accordance with the plan--and nobody has the freedom to deviate from it. This is exactly what those such as Russell Kirk and Friedrich von Hayek and others wrote about so long ago. They remain relevant to us today.
