“IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE” -ANDY WARHOL

The Beijing Olympics is not the first time the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded the games to a modern dictatorship. In 1936, the Berlin Olympics were a huge propaganda victory for Adolf Hitler. He was able to showcase his ideals of Aryan supremacy and xenophobic militarism. Although the games are remembered in the United States for sprinter Jesse Owens capturing four gold medals, at the time, they were viewed as the triumph of totalitarianism over the declining democracies. The Germans won 33 gold medals, nine more than the second-place Americans. Benito Mussolini's Italy finished third, ahead of France and Britain. The message was clear: Nazi Germany and fascist Italy represented the wave of the future, while capitalist democracies like the U.S. - embodied the old, dying order.

In a similar manner, China is seeking to use the Olympics as a symbol of its emerging global might. The Chinese are in a gold medal war with the United States. China hopes that, by defeating America in athletic competition, it can demonstrate the country's superior political and socio-economic system. In short, Beijing wants to replicate the Berlin games, and show the world that China is the new rising superpower.

-Washington Times
August 10 2008