The Olympics—a substitute transcendent

The attacks on London come in the middle of Londoners’ “triumph,” “delight,” and “euphoria” over the naming of London as the site of the 2012 Olympics. The reports of the degree of emotion that all kinds of people invested in this are quite strange. Thus,

Mr Blair said he had never known such a sense of elation [italics added] as the moment he received the news that London had won.

“You can win a House of Commons vote,” he said. “But it is not the same thing.”

What emptiness is in the British, those once-famously standoffish Island people, that having their city chosen by the International Olympic Committee is the biggest deal in their lives? It seems that for today’s secularized, de-culturized Westerners, it is only “international” and “global” things that have any meaning. Which, by the way, is the reason London is filled with Third-Worlders—and also why terrorist attacks could occur there.

I’ll underscore the point: the same impulse that makes Englishmen inordinately joyful over the selection of London as the site for the Olympics, is the impulse that has made London vulnerable to Islamic terrorism.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 07, 2005 06:51 AM | Send