Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site hocsj.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!hogpc!pegasus!hocsj!ecl From: ecl@hocsj.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sport Subject: Olympic Closing Ceremonies Message-ID: <140@hocsj.UUCP> Date: Fri, 28-Sep-84 10:53:02 EDT Article-I.D.: hocsj.140 Posted: Fri Sep 28 10:53:02 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 29-Sep-84 08:47:49 EDT Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 48 Comments on the Olympic Closing Ceremonies by Mark R. Leeper I finally got a chance to see the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I had been told about it, with its flying saucer and its alien, and had been curious, but I had not seen it until just the other night. I have some comments to make on what I saw. First of all, I suppose this is the sort of thing you expect in Los Angeles, as I said in one of my articles elsewhere. Los Angeles is movie crazy and assumes the rest of the world is also. That is how they came to put a little piece of science fiction film tradition into the Olympics. To the mind of an Angeleno, there was nothing out of place about putting a little piece of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL into the ceremonies. What I found interesting, however, is one line that the alien said. He said the Olympics represent the best that is human. My first observation is that one species cannot judge what is best in another. I haven't the foggiest idea what is the best in armadillo-kind. Only an armadillo has a right to decide that. It strikes me however that it was a human inside the suit and a human who wrote the lines. I object to the statement that the Olympics represent what is best in humankind. Olympic endeavor, impressive as it is, is very physical-intensive and mental-nonintensive. To judge that this muscle-flexing championship is what is best in humans is much akin to the Miss America philosophy that looking good in a swimsuit and high heels and having a minimal but patriotic mind is the ideal of American femininity. The Olympic athlete is a long way from my idea of an ideal person, particularly since the few I have seen interviewed have shown less than high mental powers. In fact, to be a successful Miss America probably requires more of an intellect than winning gold medals does since there are minimal mental requirements on being chosen Miss America. In this country we have gotten used to a policy of letting our schools deteriorate through apathy, but we turn out in droves to see our high school football team play. We distrust and misunderstand intellectual achievement, and we have decided to call physical perfection the best that is human. I don't know what the best that is human is, but I am pretty sure Mahatma Gandhi or Albert Einstein is a lot closer to it than anyone who ever won an Olympic medal. If what you say is what you believe, Mr. Alien, maybe that is why you need that heavy cable to hold up your saucer. (Evelyn C. Leeper for) Mark R. Leeper ...ihnp4!lznv!mrl