The Olympics are supposed to be a unifying event, bringing together the world for 17 days of friendly competition.

Yet there are antagonistic aspects of it. One of the most notable examples this year have been the calls to boycott the games due to China’s human rights violations, lack of freedom of religion, and support of Sudan in the Darfur crisis.

I was explaining my enthusiasm about the Olympics to a friend who is quite a bit older. He said that he hadn’t followed the Olympics in years. “It’s not fun without the Soviet Union to root against.”

This made me wonder, is China my generation’s enemy? Can we compare fighting the Cold War, to a battle against social injustices?