A few thoughts on the Paralympics

Monday 3rd September

No-one can possibly deny the wonderful achievement of these truly world class athletes, but one must sometimes go beyond the hype and the ten page newspaper coverage and ask just what is going on here. Why is it that just once in every four years we even turn our limited attention span to these people?  Is it because the event is being held here in London?  Is it all part of the euphoria we felt during the regular Olympics?  Are we all being swept away by sentimentality over sense, are we maybe just part of some larger crowd hysteria, are we being manipulated by an all-encompassing media.

Possibly even worse, is this modern four-yearly Paralympics just an extension of the Victorian Circus Freak Shows of old?   Are we maybe even a little bit disappointed when we cannot actually see anything wrong with the physique of the runners or swimmers?  Are we subconsciously looking for the prosthetic legs, the withered arms, the blades instead of feet; to, in some strange way, make it all alright?  It’s okay to watch this because it is on the telly, when normally we have been taught that it is wrong to stare at cripples.  In fact we go out of our way not to look them in the eye, the disabled, the lame, the dwarves we sometimes see on the street, we automatically look the other way, try to put them out of our minds, try to think about our perfect lives and not about the fact that these people are all around us.

And at the same time that David Cameron is lauding these athletes his Government is re-testing disabled people ever more stringently.  Not with the intention of rewarding them and making their lives easier, but to save money, to declare them fit for work, even if there are no jobs in any case, because they are no longer disabled but simply lazy and work-shy, malingerers, who can be paid the minimal amount to stop them actually starving.  We really need to re-examine not the disabled but our attitudes to them.