Economics is not the equivalent of a machine that produces so much money for the growing benefit of ever fewer people. The ideal and normative goal of economics is mutual, positive-sum benefit. Is this the case with the Olympic Games?
Will we have an intellectual competition alongside the XXV Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina 2026, reinforcing the International Olympic Committee’s official mission to build a better, more peaceful world through sport, and fostering education and culture?
Over time, the idea has gained traction that the Olympics are merely a vast profit-making machine. Today more than ever, the obsession with money reveals a technocratic society that is self-centred, detached from the community, and bent on accumulating ever more wealth. Billionaire technocrats and other wealthy individuals are treated to a cascade of ultra-luxury comforts. News reports announce their arrival on the slopes by helicopter, the use of reserved snowmobiles, front-row seats, queue-jumping at the entrances, aperitifs, and skiing alongside the champions. And so on. At the Ancient Greek Olympic Games, there were privileged spectators, but seats were not allocated according to wealth. Prerogative in the ancient Olympics was based primarily on religious rank and official duties.
During the Games, we will learn whether sport remains an opportunity for encounter, growth, and the building of bridges between people of all social classes. Rather than dividing, sport should unite, breaking down prejudices, overcoming economic and social barriers, and acting as a tool for dialogue to create a universal language of inclusion and solidarity. The fact is that the boundless love of money means only what can be monetised has value. The word “Economy” recalls the word “Money,” a key factor in economic decisions. The Knowledge Economy is a Cinderella, a discontinuity because it does not force the use of cognitive resources to make money. Its primary purpose is not profit, but rather the enhancement of the culture of the soul to cultivate nobility of spirit, mind, and respect for oneself and others. These are values that sport should foster. Sport, seen as a magnet attracting the aristocracy of money, is another matter entirely. With the violent manifestation of ego-nomia (the dehumanising selfish economy), sport has become commodified. The intense scent of money has intoxicated it. With no limits on the accumulation of money, there is no exaggeration in the satisfaction of one’s egocentric monetary impulses. Leo Tolstoy reflected on money as an instrument of power long before it became a means of exchange.
We expect the XXV Winter Olympic Games to celebrate sport, reviving the spirit of the ancient Olympic Games, stimulating not only the physical perfection of the athletes and the economic performance of the organisers, but also the culture and identity of the Dolomite landscapes and the human communities and other living species that inhabit them. We will have affirmative answers if, during the Games, there is no shortage of intellectual competition to break free from the confines of our small world of rationality, subjugated to technocracy. Humans are not entirely rational, much less calculating machines. We are bearers of anecdotes, beliefs, desires, emotions, fantasy, imagination, irrationality, opinions, feelings, dreams, and traditions that we must integrate with reason to achieve social innovations whose absence would allow the technological boom and the bulimia of goods and money to produce economic upheavals that would tear the fabric of society apart. There’s no need to be afraid of making mistakes during the intellectual race. As philosopher Karl Popper would say, it is from our boldest theories, including the erroneous ones, that we learn. No one can avoid making mistakes; the great thing is to learn from them. Striving for perfection is a fruitless exercise. Mistakes, flaws, and shortcomings are vital parts of our humanity. Vital because they train us in resilience, creativity, and innovation; they help us get back on track after setbacks, strengthen bonds with others, and reveal to us the landscape that reveals new ideas, possibilities, and opportunities.
