I felt we might have a chance, to show who we are.
This made me wonder why I'd doubted it in the first place. The answer was quite simple: the Millennium Dome. Everything about the Dome project was a complete, utter, trite failure.
Yet it was supposed to display the best of what it was to be British. And it was toe curling bad.
I expected the Olympic Opening ceremony to be as bad as the Dome.
Instead, it was superb. What was the difference? I suspect it's rather simple...
The Dome - designed by committee to tick boxes on how to be really good as a Brit.
The Olympic Opening ceremony - designed by a film maker with genius, vision and the guts to make people do it his way.
Risk factor on getting it wrong on the Dome? Low to minuscule. Done by political discussion, loads of tick boxes, loads of places to blame and cop out on individual responsibility.
Risk factor on getting it wrong on the Olympics? Huge. Massive. End of career for a couple of decades. Financial ruin as an individual, years of being mocked. Probable move to other side of world until fuss dies down.
And yet... the individual with vision, wins through. warms the cockles of yer heart, don't it?
You know when you made the connection the other day to me between the dome and the Olympics I thought you were really onto something....glad you've put it into words here
ReplyDeleteClosing ceremony was pretty damn good - got me out of bed despite my lurgy!!!
I saw bits of it, through the haze of exhaustion and trying to keep being asleep. The other two loved it. :-)
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