tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7099099432720184584.post7291814357748450969..comments2023-10-28T19:42:01.039+01:00Comments on Going fast, getting nowhere: Celebrate!Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15743685798068014455noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7099099432720184584.post-57753771180491532342009-07-23T13:44:32.314+01:002009-07-23T13:44:32.314+01:00Difficult and emotive subject, that one. Not least...Difficult and emotive subject, that one. Not least because people seem to assume that having a pop at the ridiculous language and PC attitude equates to having a go at the disabled themselves. Or perhaps, more accurately, will often deliberately be misinterpreted in that way in order to demonise the original speaker.<br /><br />I always find the Paralympics to be a disturbingly typical example of the whole patronising culture. For a start, it's an utterly artificial construct. Under no circumstances would the Greeks, who were pretty much the original body and health fascists, have considered allowing the disabled to have their own showpiece. Quite the opposite, in fact: so the whole "Olympics" part of it is a nonsensical soundbite. But that's OK, because whilst the civilised modern world does allow the event to happen, it's always left until after the proper Olympics are done and the cameras have been turned off.<br /><br />Truth is, it leaves the impression that there is a desire to pay lip service to equality, but not actually be confronted with the results.<br /><br />There again, I suppose if it was true equality, one would actually be able to say aloud that watching, for example, wheelchair basketball, is like watching people who aren't - in real terms - very good at playing basketball. It may well be a tremendous individual achievement for them (and I am not denigrating that in any way), but as a watchable mass-market sport, it doesn't really cut it.<br /><br />But to return to the original point: people do not, as a rule, want something as simple as dribbling a ball to be a tremendous personal achievement. They'd prefer to be able to just do it, like anyone else, without having to "celebrate" how the arbitrary cruelty of a random disability has made it into the equivalent of climbing Everest.<br /><br />Mind you, although British athletes in the Olympics largely produce a very mediocre set of results, the UK always seems to clean up in the Paralympics. Perhaps that means there's something in all this celebrating stuff...?endemoniada_88noreply@blogger.com