Nasty Nationalism

[ninj]

Well, I'm watching the closing ceremony on mute which is probably the best way to watch it. I don't hear the drumming, but I also don't hear the commentary. I took an entire class on Nationalism in January. I was even in China, and I guess it really takes something like watching the Olympics to realize that what was true then is still true now. What really struck me through the coverage of the Olympics and in the hours since it's been over is how NOT about internationalism this event is. Harmony? Good will? BULL. I listened to NBC commentators pitch fits over gymnastics and blandly ignore other champions that weren't American. Now what they wouldn't say during the games about China they're more then happy to say now that the Olympics are over. So yeah, don't let anyone fool you, as inarticulate as everything I just typed was it is clear to me that the Olympics are an instance of creating national pride at the expense of others if possible. Which is not at all to say that I don't respect all the athletes that contributed. They did a great job, and at times were really fun to watch.

Which leads me to this election and how sick of Obama and McCain I am. I know who I'm voting for, and I don't expect to make a difference. Because I don't think you can get to the office of president and be unencumbered, but alliances and allegiances to companies and corporations. The more I learn about McCain the more ill he makes me. I'm sick of politics. However, I think the next few months will be interesting, especially after the conventions when Obama and Biden start campaigning together.

Work is going well. I finally started to get some feedback and it was really positive. So that's good I'm starting to feel a lot more secure. I still want more job security in the future though. Definitely don't recommend temping. Although now I have something in common with Donna.

Chris and I have spent the week re-watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles which he never watched before, but I'm enjoying the recap of. I look forward to that starting up again which is nice. I'm debating if I want to give Heroes another try. I still haven't seen season one and I don't know how season two ended. I wasn't absolutely thrilled with season two, but it was alright. Our other TV is off the air now. In Plain Sight ended in an episode that pretty much ruined the series for me so I don't even know if I want to pick that up again next summer. Burn Notice is still interesting which I'm enjoying. I think not as good as last season, but still consistent.

I miss Battlestar.

Comments

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

...You know, I think the rampant nationalism is a big part of why I like the Games. Not that NBC's coverage doesn't make me want to put an axe through my television. Thank god for NHK.

[hisui-ryoshi.livejournal.com]

That was a comment I made several times was that I really wish I could watch the Olympics from another nation to get different coverage. Just to see what it was like.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

It was similar in that a lot of the focus was on the Japanese athletes, though everyone seemed to be rooting for Michael Phelps to an extent. I watched most of it on the Internet, so I'm not sure if I can directly compare the television coverage directly.

[spacevlad.livejournal.com]

Every time I watched the TV coverage I was kind of disgusted, especially with how much 1. NBC concentrated on US athletes and US athletes ONLY and 2. how much they sucked China's dick. "OMG, China is sooooo great, we loooooove them"...of course no talk of the other side of the coin. Blah. The extreme nationalism of any country, but especially China, I find terrifying. Watching the opening and closing ceremonies was a little chilling at times.

Early polls don't matter, but I am a little scared that these early polls are showing a virtual dead heat between Obama and McCain. Uhm. What!? I've said it before: coming off of one of the worst presidents in history, and riding one of the most charismatic political figures since Robert Kennedy in 1968, if the Democrats lose this election it means 1. they might as well give up and 2. this country is full of conservative religious idiots than i thought.

I look forward to re-watching SCC (on blu-ray!) before season 2 starts as well. Actually my sister went to a gun range and posted some pictures on Facebook, and I swear she looks like Sarah Conner. As for Heroes, I'm excited for season 3...you should watch season 1, but you could probably get away with just reading Wiki summaries of season 2

[hisui-ryoshi.livejournal.com]

Well, what I find even more offensive is that like five minutes after the Olympics is over is that NBC tried to bite China in the balls and basically started going crazy over what an 'evil' country China is. I mean I find it difficult to imagine that if you're going to imagine China is the land of shangra la one moment and satan's playground the next you might want to have some basis for either opinion.

the religious right is terrifying to me. I believe in God and I believe in being open minded and forward thinking, and I don't believe you can't do both. I don't know how much of it is media representation either. I can't believe that McCain is doing that well.

I liked the opening and closing ceremonies and I think it's about time someone reminded us that we don't have the monopoly on militarism. Although that may turn out to be not so good for us.

[futatsuninja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got really bored of only watching stuff where American athletes were likely to do well. There are other interesting games, and also athletes from other countries who are made of win. I totally wish we had other channels that would do coverage of events NBC wasn't doing.

It was kind of interesting watching it after KTP's class, though. Watching how obvious they were about skirting around that stuff. And knowing that China was going to ban anyone who spoke badly about them, and all that. I wonder if that stuff will come up in the next couple weeks, though...

I keep meaning to watch SCC. For Heroes, you should definitely try to see season one, it was great. Season two was okay. I'm hoping three will be good. *crosses fingers*

[hisui-ryoshi.livejournal.com]

Yeah. So the Uyghurs who I did my paper on, about how they weren't terrorists? Have committed five attacks since early August. Opps. I still say a majority aren't terrorists.

I'll probably check out this season of heroes.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i saw that about the stuff in Xinjiang. I suppose they got tired of being called terrorists wrongly, and decided to make the label true...not really.