Fight and stand against the illusion they are painting before us

The fine line between fascism and democracy has been unveiled in the propaganda charade Vanoc is portraying in their media campaign. By including and doctoring the historic footage of the Nazi era Olympic newsreels show that the historical real, the spectacle real, and the erotic real of our performance as a global society is being subverted by Vanoc and the Olympic machine to devalue the past experiences of our human condition as irrelevant. So that they can de-politicize our current climate of dissent as a minor occurrence in lieu of their interpretation of the greatest event to ever define the human body this 21st century. The corporate and governmental elite have not changed since the modernist period or the contemporary period of cultural politics. IN this new age I call The Age of Technological authenticity, the mass propaganda machine of these two false entities of absolute evil is authenticating what is democratic and what is fascist in the minds of the populace mind. We as a people must fight and stand against the illusion they are painting before us and strip away the illusionary veils they broadcast on our technological tools! I write this article as a result of the story published in the National Post below

'Saluting' Nazi filmmaker a no-win for VANOC

At: http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/blogs/joeoconnor/2010/01/saluting-nazi-filmmaker-a-no-win-for-vanoc.html#socialcomments-submit

It has been raining on Cypress Mountain of late, causing some logistical headaches at the Olympic venue, but the latest dark cloud on the horizon appears on the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) website. 

 

"Lights Will Guide You Home" is a four-minute video celebrating the Olympic torch run. It also happens to include the work of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whose biggest fan was a madman named Adolf Hitler. Riefenstahl was friends with the Nazi leader, and was a sometime propagandist for his National Socialist program. Her film "Triumph of the Will‚" about the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg in 1934, helped put Hitler on the international map. 

 

A few years later, Riefenstahl shot "Olympia," a movie about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler hoped to show the world his Aryan utopia. There is an ongoing debate about whether the film is a piece of propaganda or a non-partisan work of art. (Let's just assume it was a bit of both). 

 

One of Riefenstahl's most wondrous inventions in "Olympia" -- in addition to filming athletes in slow motion -- was the Olympic torch relay. She concocted the now well-worn ritual for her movie, and VANOC incorporated some of her scenes into its four-minute clip. 

 
 

Borrowing from a Nazi propagandist -- er, ah, cinematic genius -- is no crime. (Not crediting Riefenstahl's work, which would appear to be the case with VANOC, could be). But where VANOC may run afoul is in the editing applied to "Olympia."

 

In the original version, a torch runner enters a packed stadium with the flame held aloft. There is martial music playing and, just on the edge of the screen, a handful of individuals flashing the "Heil Hitler" salute. In the edited, made-in-Vancouver version, the Nazi salutes have been blacked out. (Coldplay has also replaced the drums and trumpets).

 

Had the salute been left alone, there would have been howls of protest, perhaps even a call for a federal inquiry. By blacking them out, VANOC is hiding a historic truth and paddling down a familiar Canadian river called Political Correctness. (Cut Riefenstahl altogether and it is self-censorship). Can anybody say: no-win situation?  

 

VANOC said in an email that they decided to include the controversial footage to maintain the historical accuracy of the video. 

 

"We weighed our choices as to whether to leave the Berlin 1936 relay footage out entirely, to alter it in order to depoliticize it, or to leave it in unaltered;  we chose the middle ground, in order to respect the relay¹s history while not highlighting the political environment of the

day," the statement said. "We weighed the decision carefully, as even though the Berlin 1936 Games footage lasts only a few seconds, we wanted to try and do the right thing to reflect the relay's past."

 

 

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