THE OLYMPICS OF FACE

From Dr. Jack Wheeler:

"As we enjoy watching the debacle of the Chicom Torch Relay disastrously unfold from London to Paris to San Francisco to points beyond, let's step back to the bigger picture of what these Olympics are all about.

They are not about sport and Olympic Ideals, that's for sure. The competing athletes from scores of countries all over the world are only props. These Beijing Games are about one thing only. They are about face - Chinese face.

The concept of face - as in "losing face" or "saving face" - plays a critical role in Chinese culture and the way most Chinese deal with reality - a way that is fundamentally opposed to that of Americans.

If your "face" is the primary concern of your life, controlling your conduct and morality, then you believe that reality is what other people say it is, not what it is in fact. The morality of face is the morality of pretend.

For any country to host an Olympic Games, it's a matter of national pride. But for China, that's all that it is. The purpose of the Beijing Games is China's "coming-out party," during which the world accepts Chicom China as a morally legitimate nation, and publicly pretends it is not a dictatorship. For the Chicoms, this pretense is the Games' only purpose.

Which means, if the party is spoiled, it will be a catastrophic loss of face for the Chicoms, and the Han Chinese they rule."