With Olympics, we yearn to be like gods

[cbayer]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/11/my-take-with-olympics-we-yearn-to-be-like-gods/



August 11th, 2012
11:00 PM ET

Editor's Note: Joseph Loconte, Ph.D., is an associate professor of history at the King’s College in New York City and the author of The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt.

By Joseph Loconte, Special to CNN

(CNN) The ancient Greeks, especially the frugal Spartans, would probably balk at the commercialism that saturates our modern Olympic Games. And it’s doubtful that either badminton or beach volleyball would satisfy their appetite for blood-and-guts competition.

Yet we share something with the Greeks every time we assemble for this great athletic contest: a desire to transcend the politics of the moment and reach beyond the ordinary limits of human achievement. That desire has been on full display during the London Summer Games.

Begun in 776 BC, the Olympic Games soon became so important to Greek life that conflicts between participating Greek city-states, which were constantly squabbling with one another, would be suspended until after the games. The great historian Thucydides described one such scene in his classic history of the Peloponnesian War.

“The whole gathering at the festival was terrified that the Spartans might arrive under arms…and it was thought that there would be a crisis,” he wrote. “The Spartans, though, fell quiet and let the festival pass without incident.”

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[Jim__]

1. The ancient Greeks may have put aside their squabbling - we don't.

During WWI and WWII, the 1916, '40, and '44 Olympics were not held. In '72 we had terrorism in the Munich Olympics, and in 1980, the US led a 50 nation boycott followed by a Soviet boycott in 1984.

I agree with what he says about the athletes transcending the ordinary. unfortunately, the rest of us aren't yet willing to follow.

[cbayer]

2. I agree to an extent, but I bet the Olympic Village is a magical place.

I hope that those who are very different and may hold longstanding bigotry towards each other find ways to get to know and understand each other.