Debbie Jacob

FOR MANY people, the Paris Olympics have been eye-opening – not because of the sports and athletes that we should be focused on – but because of the opening ceremony, which sparked divisive opinions about an event historically rooted in unity.

Well into the competition, the opening ceremony is still taking centre stage. Criticism about athletes making their first appearance in boats zipping down the Seine River aren’t subsiding, with some people claiming it was the worst opening ceremony ever.

I liked it because it was different. Complain all you want, but the two most memorable Olympic ceremonies are arguably the 1991 Barcelona Olympics showcasing Peter Minshall’s creativity and this one, simply because they were so different.

Call this year’s opening ceremony lessons in creativity and confusion. Thinking outside of the box – or the stadium in this case – polarised people. They either loved the avant-garde thinking behind the entertainment or hated it. Few people ever feel indifferent when artists push creative boundaries.

An even bigger uproar surfaced after French director Thomas Jolly’s skit and fashion show which he claimed depicted Dionysus and his cohorts in Olympus celebrating the Olympic Games.

It looked like typical, tasteless Greek mythological bacchanalia to me, but some viewers felt it mocked Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Christ’s Last Supper. This presentation caused a huge uproar.

MSNBC columnist Anthea Butler wrote, “The moral panic over a scene of drag queens feasting at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics set off a firestorm of outrage from religious conservatives and politicians who believed the scene was a mockery of the Last Supper. Except it wasn’t about the Last Supper at all.”

The bacchanal caused by Jolly’s provocative scene offers an opportunity for us to examine how emotions rather than reasoning guide our reactions to everything from art to politics.

Every spoken word has become so emotionally charged it’s difficult and sometimes downright scary to have opinions on anything. We have become insensitive and intolerant about opinions that differ from ours.

We don’t reason our way through difficult, emotional situations that we perceive as threats to our own morals, values and religious beliefs. Those caught in the middle of polarised views fear being attacked and ostracised for speaking out.

So does Jolly’s work qualify for art? Did Dionysus have a place at the Paris Olympics?

Dionysus was the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy. He is the son of Zeus, the Olympic god for whom the Olympic Games were held every four years from 776 BCE (Before the Christian Era) to 395 CE (Current Era).

Jolly said Dionysus was there because he is the father of Sequana, goddess of the River Seine, who was depicted by the horsewoman riding a metal horse along the Seine.

No one is talking about the Harris survey highlighted in the UK Guardian which said of the 23 million people in France watching the Paris Olympic openin