If It's Not An Epee It Must Be A Double Pike

I don't know about anyone else but every four years I suddenly become an expert on sports I have never heard of, I can appreciate weight lifting's finer points and don't get me started on dressage.  It is all part of the weird bubble of illusion the Olympics engenders in me.  I experienced a similiar thing watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. I think this was partly because I had just watched a programme on BBC2 "The History of the British" with that excellent historian Michael Wood and he had been talking about the 17th Century;  the Civil War, the incredible radical thought and actions that came about after the death of the King. I should declare that I am a Republican, an old fashioned Socialist and, I admit it, an Idealist and I had a head full of Levellers, Ranters, Diggers and the New Model Army when I turned over to BBC1 for the Ceremony.  It was an extraordinary spectacle and it made my heart swell ( I have always thought that was a tacky, stupid, over used phrase but that was what I felt) with pride at being British, I thought to myself "Yes, this is who we are, this is our history as a country" and then after it had finished the presenter asked a visiting American if they had understood it.  My immediate gut reaction flared out of nowhere, it was "I couldn't care less if this foreigner understands it, this is us, take it or leave it American idiot".  I don't think like that, don't respond to foreigners like that, I have lived all over the world and I am not xenophobic.  Hearing myself made me stop and think - what I had watched was a  passionate, beautiful psychodrama that opened up all kinds of ideas about our country and who we are but it wasn't real.  Reality is what the Olympics are blocking out. Unless you are a serious news "junkie" it is hard to find out what is going on in the world, right now I am getting most of my news from Euronews, Al Jazeera, Michael Moore.com, Smirking Chimp etc even Channel 4's evening news gives a large chunk of time to the sports, yes I know, it is a huge event but there are even bigger, much more important and dangerous events happening or about to happen.  The war in Syria grinds on with atrocity piled upon atrocity displacing thousands of civilians - Jordan has set up a huge refugee camp to house them. Turkey has troops massed on its border with Syria and the fighting has leaked into Lebanon, there is even, according to an eyewitness, a kind of "International Brigade" with British fighters involved meanwhile Russia keeps supplying Assad with weapons and Mitt Romney, the ultra right wing American Presidential hopeful goes around the world stoking the fire for a war with Iran.  If you try to think happy thoughts a strong rumour has started that the EU interest rate has been tampered with and a quiet investigation into the claim is being conducted.  In Russia Putin is crushing any kind of dissent, from peaceful protest in St. Petersburg to yes, I know "Pussy Riot" is very old fashioned in our eyes but those feminists face 10 years in prison for "hooliganism" if they are found guilty.  Perhaps it is safer being inside the Olympic bubble can I have my epee back please?