Larry Solway: How does the term "Goldmedalitis" resonate with you?
McMurtry: It is definitely a pathology because it deforms a commitment to the health and physical wellbeing of Canadians by making gold medals rather than fitness and excellence a national goal.
Larry Solway: Would you support the idea of more money for Olympians?
McMurtry: If the reference to "Olympians" represents the outcome at the top level of the whole process of Canadians becoming better and better at sports, then I think it is a valid objective. The problem is that it's only a small elite decoupled from the larger community of Canadians needing play and sport facilities.
Larry Solway: Where should more money be spent?
McMurtry: If you're really interested in sports begin by thinking of fields of play for the young. There should be more playing areas for the young. For example, Toronto (and other areas) no longer have open, season-round outdoor hockey rinks for people which used to be a Canadian tradition. The technology and the wealth are there, but pro sport hustlers are too busy getting public money for commercial franchises.
Larry Solway: Are we obsessed with higher, faster, stronger?
McMurtry: The issue is not so much that as more medals. The Olympics are really no longer about excellence. They have been high-jacked as corporate marketing sites paid for out of the public purse. So it is now all about Gold in more ways than one, not about sport or international friendship. The Olympics are now sales venues for profitable hawking of unhealthy commodities.
Larry Solway: What seems to be missing from our coverage of Canadian athletes?
McMurtry: Well, Canada has provided the world's best triathalete, best wrestler and best tennis team. Have we even noticed that team combined an English and French speaking pair displaying to the whole world the performative power of Canada as an integrated country?
Larry Solway: What about the continuing campaign to get more money?
McMurtry: I repeat. Money spent on sports should go to more fields of play for the young - and for the not so young. Now the Olympics from top to bottom are constructed as a money payoff system to the privileged - corporate marketeers, official junketers, and ad-athletes wanting endorsement revenues - all paid for out of taxpayers' pockets. It's the Roman Circus for private profits.
John McMurtry is the author of five books: The Dimensions of English (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), The Structure of Marx's World-View (Princeton University Press, 1978), Understanding War (Science for Peace and Samuel Stevens, 1989), Unequal Freedoms:the Global Market as an Ethical System(Toronto: Garamond and West Hartford, Connectitut, 1998), and The Cancer Stage of Capitalism. London: Pluto Press, 1999 and Tokyo: Springer-Verlag, 2000). He is a frequent consultant to regional and international media, N.G.O.'s and government bodies, and was Chair of Jurists at the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Tribunal Alternative World Summit in Toronto, 1989.
Straight Goods readers: Speak your mind!
[ Front Page ]
