One World, One Dream

Today – and currently taking place – are opening ceremonies of the 29th Olympiad. For reflection, I offer a cynical Greek’s perspective on athletes’ societal worthiness – from the opening of Isocrates’ Panegyricus:

Many times I have wondered at those who first convokes the national assemblies and established the athletic games, amazed that they should have thought the prowess of human bodies to be deserving of so great bounties, while those who had toiled in private for the public good and trained their own minds so as to be able to help also their fellow humans when the apportioned no reward whatsoever, when, in all reason, they ought rather to have made provision for the latter; for if all the athletes should acquire twice the strength which they now possess, the rest of the world would be no better off; but let a single man attain to wisdom, and all men will reap the benefit who are willing to share his insight. Yet I have no on this account lost heart nor chosen to abate my labors; on the contrary, believing that I shall have a sufficient reward in the approbation which my discourse will itself command, I have come before you to give my counsels…