May 2012
16 posts
“Tyranny: Clinton era tax rates. Not tyranny: Govt locking up its own citizens without having to charge them with a crime.”
—@AdamSerwer (via wilwheaton)
http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/22790662413/the-nazi-origins-of-the-olympic-flame-relay-the →
theatlantic.tumblr.com
The Nazi Origins of the Olympic Flame Relay
The 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics were to be, according to Arnd Krüger and William J. Murray’s history of “The Nazi Games,” a means of furthering Hitler’s ethnic and nationalist messages, a tool of Nazi soft power. Few aspects of the bizarre and highly political ‘36 games exemplified Hitler’s propaganda mission better than the Olympic torch relay and ceremony. Though propagandists portrayed the torch relay as ancient tradition stretching back to the original Greek competitions, the event was in fact a Nazi invention, one typical of the Reich’s love of flashy ceremonies and historical allusions to the old empires. And it’s a tradition we still continue today, with this morning’s lighting of the flame in Olympia, the birthplace of the original games circa 776 B.C., from which it will be carried by a series of relay runners to the site of the games, in this case London.
Read more. [Image: AP]
Woah.
