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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