ABSTRACT
The modern Olympic Games began in 1896. This culminated more than a century of the development of modern nation-states across Europe and preceded a century containing the most destructive wars in the history of humanity. Does nationalism in sports, epitomised in the nationalism at Olympic Games, contribute to the mobilisation of mass populations for popular wars and genocide? I will argue that it does. In doing so I am replying to the moderate patriotism of Nicholas Dixon, who argues in Chapter 5 that there is an unobjectionable patriotism in sports which consists in favouring one’s national team without disrespecting the teams of other nations.1 He surely seems right in this: it seems that we can moderate our patriotism, thus making it innocuous. Nevertheless, I will argue that in the current economic and political context, with sharpening rivalries between competing imperial powers leading to small and bigger wars, being moderately patriotic is like being a little bit pregnant.
