Since When Is Greece’s Culture Obscene?

Greece does not wish to be drawn into an American culture war. Yet that is exactly what is happening. The Federal Communications Commission has launched an investigation into the broadcast of the opening ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games.

The first step was taken in December, when the commission demanded that NBC provide it with tapes of the broadcast. This was in response to nine complaints about indecency from U.S. citizens (globally, viewers exceeded 3.9 billion).

The FCC posted the complaints on its website. One person reported hearing an obscenity; one objected to the male anatomy on a representation of Greek sculpture; another thought a woman’s breast had been revealed; and yet another claimed to have seen a couple making love.

If NBC is punished for airing our opening ceremonies -- which in reality depicted Greek contributions to civilization -- it would, in effect, label a presentation of our culture on your airwaves as “indecent.” We resent it, and I feel duty-bound to respond.

Let’s remember the context. Greece waited 108 years for the modern Olympic Games to return to our country, where the Olympics were invented in 776 BC, and to Athens, where they were revived in 1896. Greece overcame enormous obstacles to host the games. We had to complete preparations that were supposed to take seven years in four years’ time, and ours were the first post-9/11 Summer Games, which required us to provide unprecedented security.

After essentially running a marathon at a sprinters’ pace, and facing the doubts of foreign skeptics, Greece was ready on time. We fought over-commercialization by sponsors and cheating by athletes. We had great Games in a safe environment. World records were shattered. For 17 triumphant days, the world saw the remarkable things that its athletes and we Greeks could accomplish.

Our Games’ positive first impression was created by the opening ceremonies. Before 72,000 spectators in the open-air stadium, lighted by pyrotechnics, with performers and props flying through the air on wires and moving en masse across the infield, the ceremonies presented the Greek origins of democracy, philosophy, theater, sport and the Olympic Games. In this context, we represented the Greek sculpture people see in museums, realistic human beings as God made them. We also showed a couple enjoying their love of the Greek sea and each other. And we told the history of Eros, the god of love. Turning love, yearning and desire into a deity is an important part of our contribution to civilization.

Far from being indecent, the opening ceremonies were beautiful, enlightening, uplifting and enjoyable. There was no cause for shame or complaint.

As Americans surely are aware, there is great hostility in the world today to cultural domination in which a single value system created elsewhere diminishes and degrades local cultures. There is also a vast and violent global culture war raging between the forces of modernism and fundamentalism, a battle whose outcome cannot be known. In this context, it is astonishingly unwise for an agency of the U.S. government to engage in an investigation that could label a presentation of the Greek origins of civilization as unfit for television viewing.

It is my hope that Americans will consider this advice: Don’t punish NBC or Greece for accurately portraying Greek culture in your living rooms.

In the past, the U.S. has been open to the world, incorporating the best it has to offer into its culture. Turning away from this tradition would bring about a close-minded, fortress mentality that would endanger the U.S. and its relations with other countries.

Accept us as we are. It’s the decent thing to do.