2024 Olympics: blasphemic or just bold?
A dualistic view on the Opening Ceremony
Note: I am not judging the morality, but I am stating a view for posterity. Think of this as a possible post made by a historian in the year 3024, that just unearthed a terrabyte of data showcasing the state of society in 2024 and its iteration of the olympics. Judge it from this perspective.
Inspired by a romanian writer’s post, Paul Gabor .
TL;DR: The 2024 Olympic Ceremony is not malevolent, it is exactly what it should be, a representation of our times.
For a deeper delve, look at the other sections.
The Ceremony, in discussion, in specificity this, showcased an overwhelming similarity to the christian “Last Supper” and the greek mythology of “Feast of Gods”. The element that was found offensive was the drag queen element, which clashes with the christian ideology.
Wikipedia: A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender specifies and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and have been a part of gay culture.
We have to bear in mind that the Olympics is a business, an economic machine that leverages trends for their own profit. The queer trend has been on the uprise and it seems it is here to stay. The organisers wanted to represent modern times and their culture adequately. Same as they did for the 1936 Olympics. I am sure that the designers would have opted for a completely different look, had they been influenced by or given directions towards something with more media growth.
Then why did they choose something so similar to a religious symbol?
Of course, not because they wanted to convert people to christianity. Or to the greek pantheon.
I believe it was because of the strong oxymoronic effect. An oxymoron combines two contradictory terms to create a paradoxical effect, often revealing a deeper or hidden truth.
As an artist myself, I recognise that art on many occasions is a walking contradiction. Good. Art is meant to invoke strong feelings in one and did it not?
I have not spoken to the designers, nor can I read their mind.
But we can observe something much more interesting. All religions are “poor” copycats of another one. The greek Dionysus → roman Bachhus → originally semitic Jesus →?
And as argued below, since
“God is dead. We have killed him”
We need a “religious”/servitude framework to operate within
This drag ceremony “copies” religious themes
One could draw the conclusion that a new servitude framework, if religion is too strong of a word, is being formed. Right we are at the peak of the loneliness pandemic and this minority community says they accept anyone. So of course, it is going to grow in popularity. Hell, you don’t even need to partake in any specific ritual, you can come as you are.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” → “You should love yourself as they once loved their God, from all their soul and mind”
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” → “You should love your neighbour as they are and as you love yourself”
Now, let’s back up this claims with some historia:
End of Christianity, but where did it start?
Skip to the next section if you know the history.
As a middle-eastern jewish cult, christianity began ~2000 years ago . The Talmud, a foundational jewish text, talks about a Messiah ben David, a leader related to the second king of Israel (the nation of jewsish people), David. He is said to unite the peoples once again and bring prosperity.
Jesus or Yeshua in his mother tongue of Aramaic is said to be born in Bethleem, in Judea, under the Roman Empire’s rule.
”There are but two types of people, those who are Romans and those who are not.” And the latter were mostly considered barbarians, unworthy of the same humane rights. Naturally, the “superior” romans persecuted the jews in their land.
He rose to popularity by becoming a political leader. He resembles the long gone greek philosophers who spoke publicly, in temples, about pressing issues in society. Both Jesus and say, Socrates, garnered a following, “apostles” who wrote down their philosophy. Christianity and Platonism.
On a religious regional level, there were the roman “pagan” gods, who were heavily inspired by greek counter-parts, and 4 main jewish cults: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots. Jesus was not only happy about how his people were being treated, but also how they treated one another. The "Cleansing of the Temple” is Jesus’s protest against the commercialization and corruption he observed within the Temple precincts, where money changers and merchants were conducting business.
Long story short, he was a disruptor. He paid in full, by being nailed to a cross, a popular punishment for slaves, criminals, and rebellious subjects.
His team unknowingly started writing the 2nd part of what is now the Bible, the New Testament.
Historians say that the chances of a mono-theistic sect, a religion of one god opposed to the poly-theistic gods of antiquity, to take over western culture were a long shot at the time, <1%. Yet it did happen. Its inception was in the 4th century when Roman Emperor Constantine gathered christian priests to debate an official meta of christianity, only later to be made the official religion of the empire by Theodosius in 380AD. The aim was to bring stability among the people.
Christ comes from the greek “Christus” - Messiah. The learned people’s tongue was greek. Marcus Aurelius wrote his famous journal “Meditations” in it. Even Julius Caesar’s last words, were in greek: “you too, child” or more commonly heard “Et tu brute”
Change of religion and do we even need it?
All this shows us that people can undergo a “forced” change of religion, be it the norse , the greek, the roman, the celts.
But now, being so educated and civilised do we even need a religion?
In a utopia, where each person is 100% what they should be, no. We can dream of a world where rationality and compassion lead us to behave holistically. This is what Enlightenment after the Middle Ages proposed. And this is what the West embraced.
If we went from a handful of gods we served, to then one, to none. There is no really apparent and easy way to serve. We become selfish and we want to focus on careers and dreams, forgetting about “God”, the higher purpose, our peers. Funnily, there is a jewish belief that purgatory is a distanced state from the spirit, where one only has access to the material. Poverty of the soul.
People speak of helping others 2000km away, yet we can’t remember when we helped our neighbour.
From an evolutionary perspective, if something exists and persists, then it either helps a species’ survival, or it does not hinder it. Biologically, we are the same as 2000 years ago.
Let’s forget about the divine aspect of religion for a second. To paraphrase Slavoj Zizek “Do you really think that the greeks believed in gods from the sky? or it was more like a compass to something spiritual, above them?”
No Responsibility = More Stress
Anecdotal evidence suggests that people with less responsibility are more stressed than their counterparts. Same might apply to religion. People who do not believe in higher powers or do not exist within and with a secular framework with the same servitude equivalence, might be more depressed. Naturally, our evolutionistic wiring will lead to establishing such new frameworks. You can call it secular or paganistic, depending on which side of the fence you are.
Revamping religion, the divine is not part of the definition, but divinization. In our new age world, it is the full expression of the individual, the liberation from all boundaries: nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference. It is said that the last frontier of liberalism/liberation is the one from our “humanity”. Homo Sapiens → Novo Sapiens/Homo Technologis.
Conclusion
We are living in interesting times. For a thousand years, our lives were mostly the same. Then the industrial and information revolution came. AI next?
Times of rapid change. It seems that this queer trend is mostly mimetic, as in spread by imitation or other non-genetic means.
For everyone who sees their culture dying, you have 2 options, that are civilised and humane:
See it die, willingly or unwillingly, embrace the new world.
Have as many children, so you can actually shape what the world will look like. And of course, be a good human. Shipping them to orphanages does not look like a good option.
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”
