There is something uniquely British about moaning. We are sceptics. As George Orwell once suggested, the reason no one ever goose-stepped down English streets is simply that everybody would laugh. There is a sense of distance that you don't see in the 'we-are-the-greatest-nation-on-earth-and-can-do-anything' USA.
Perhaps we are temperamentally 'glass half empty' nations rather than natural 'can do' optimists.
And maybe that has something to do with our climate, it's changeability engendering an innate caution that whatever we an might get stuffed by the weather.
Or, maybe it has to do with a mature recognition from our history that any glimpse of greatness is always temporary – that empires come and go and that they often appear in retrospect to be less great than our rhetoric or transient glory seduced us into believing.
Anyway, we can only hope that for the next couple of weeks the media might be sidetracked from looking for all the holes (of which there will be many – but when did the commentariat last organise anything for which they would be held eternally accountable?) and celebrate the once-in-a-lifetime communal party of pride that will be the 30th Olympiad.
Jonathan Freedland hits the right buttons in this morning's Guardian. I might not get to see huge amounts of sport during the next couple of weeks, but I feel proud of what has been achieved in even getting to this point.
Yes, seconds after the closing ceremony the commentariat will start to question everything – and the 'legacy' questions will need to be asked – but I hope we might first celebrate before we criticise.
Posted with Blogsy
July 27, 2012 at 9:10 am
Dead right, Nick.
July 27, 2012 at 9:14 am
Well said!
July 27, 2012 at 10:08 am
Whingers might note we’d not have London 2012 without the unpaid work of Cherie Blair. Play up Britain and we British!
July 27, 2012 at 7:01 pm
Thanks for this, and for posting the Guardian article – nice to read such a positive perspective, and get a freebie Orwell piece! The Olympic atmosphere even on the fringes of London is brilliant! I’m not even going to whinge about the muggy weather…
I hope it’s okay to add here – I’m really glad the PCS strike was averted, and also I take my hat off to Mark Serwotka. He has an exceptionally difficult job in very trying circumstances, and both he and border agency staff get my respect. I heard a Radio 4 prog about border agency staff last night which made my hair stand on end. We are very lucky to have people willing to do the job – and an organisation like PCS which is there to protect their interests as far as they are able.
now.. gearing up for the greatest show on earth!
July 28, 2012 at 9:17 am
Thanks for the link to the Guardian article which had a good number of thoughts to reflect on.
We watched most of the opening ceremony last night. We missed the beginning as we wanted to watch the Proms on BBC Four. I have to admit to a sense of “this can either be very good or very bad” as we switched to BBC One and have to say we thought Danny Boyle did a great, if bonkers, job along with his hundreds of volunteers. Even the marching in of the teams wasn’t boring – we used it as a test to see which of us knew where some of the smaller (or newer) nations were.
What the other nations thought of the whole thing or if they understood some of the more ‘subtle’ references to our culture and history, who knows. But maybe it will make us all appreciate how historically and culturally rich we really are.