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London Olympic Games chief warns of ‘one idiot’ threat

-Activist caused havoc on River Thames
-Olympics boss concerned of ‘one idiot’ threat
-Warns a single person may cause “major disruption”

BRITAIN’S Olympic chief has warned that security forces cannot rule out the threat of disruption to the London Games after a protester halted the historic Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Australian activist Trenton Oldfield, 35, was charged with a public order offence after he caused a half-hour hiatus in Saturday’s race by swimming in front of the two universities’ boats in the River Thames.

British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan has said there is a high risk of similar incidents during the London Olympics, which begin on July 27, with the torch relay starting next month.

“It just takes, and is likely to be, one idiot. It’s not likely to be a well-orchestrated campaign through Twitter or websites,” Mr Moynihan, himself a former Olympic rowing silver medallist, told BBC radio.

“It is likely to be someone similar to the idiot yesterday who causes major disruption. That is why all the security measures need to be put in place to minimise the chance of that happening.

The story goes on to say “his motive for his actions as fighting elitism”.

This is wrong for two reasons that I can think of.

Firstly, why fight “elitism” when there are stronger reasons for fighting things like world hunger.

Secondly, I truly believe the world needs excellence.

I say those things as a student on a low income. There is nothing elitist about my riding the train or driving an old car. I take as much offence as anybody else when somebody acts like a “elitist snob”.

But there is danger in banning “elitism”. What sort of society would we live in if everything was dumbed down?

I think you’re missing the point.

It doesn’t matter what you think - they are using the term ‘idiot’ not just in a perjorative sense, but a literal one. There are some very dumb people out there in the world (49% of the world has below-average intelligence, if you think about it…), and some of them get upset for very dumb reasons.

Now, for the boat race, I can see why they might be upset - loads of media attention and people being excited about a sporting event only the most fabulously wealthy can afford to participate in. If the person feels they are owed the same chance to participate and more probably, owed the same lifestyle, they may get upset that THEY are not the center of all that attention and glory.

As for the Olympics, well, you have a lot of world attention in one place, and people will try and put forth their own personal campaigns and protests. Loads of people upset at a given country for whatever reasons, and if they can’t fight the country, they can attack the country’s image. They do this every time, of course, but there’s been a lot of anger of late, due to the economy and other stress. I just hope that they don’t take that anger out on the athletes themselves.

... I also hope this discussion doesn’t get us on some sort of watch list.

Robin Bobcat - 09 April 2012 04:00 AM

I think you’re missing the point.

It doesn’t matter what you think - they are using the term ‘idiot’ not just in a perjorative sense, but a literal one. There are some very dumb people out there in the world (49% of the world has below-average intelligence, if you think about it…), and some of them get upset for very dumb reasons.

Now, for the boat race, I can see why they might be upset - loads of media attention and people being excited about a sporting event only the most fabulously wealthy can afford to participate in. If the person feels they are owed the same chance to participate and more probably, owed the same lifestyle, they may get upset that THEY are not the center of all that attention and glory.

As for the Olympics, well, you have a lot of world attention in one place, and people will try and put forth their own personal campaigns and protests. Loads of people upset at a given country for whatever reasons, and if they can’t fight the country, they can attack the country’s image. They do this every time, of course, but there’s been a lot of anger of late, due to the economy and other stress. I just hope that they don’t take that anger out on the athletes themselves.

... I also hope this discussion doesn’t get us on some sort of watch list.

No, I do recognise they are using the word “idiot” in the way you mean.

I just don’t agree with protesting against an event like this even though it is seen as elitist and brings the participants glory through media coverage. My point about “dumbing down” society is connected with the idea of the possibility of doing away with any kind of excellence. I don’t feel comfortable with elitism but to seek to ban something simply because it is seen as elitist leaves a society open to potential consequences which are less than desirable.

“It just takes, and is likely to be, one idiot.

That’s the way it is with so very many things in life.  One random idiot can do as much as (or even more than) an entire planned conspiracy.  They can snarl up an entire traffic system just by deciding that they want to make a turn the wrong way onto a one-way street.  They can cost a corporation millions or billions of dollars by unwittingly walking out through the wrong exit and thus setting off a fire alarm.  You can plan against malicious acts, but it is much harder to predict the stupid acts.

It’s somewhat similar to the way in which a lone crazy guy with a gun is a more worrisome threat to security people than is a whole network of trained assassins.

“It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious”

Lee Harvy Oswald was a one man band…

*ducks*

Make that two idiots.