If it wasn’t all done for the worthy cause of competitive trampolining and world-class badminton I might have a problem with what’s coming out about the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony. According to the AP, “performers were injured, fainted from heatstroke or forced to wear adult diapers so the show could go on.”

Enough about the lucky ones. Just consider the 2,200 martial artists:

[C]arefully chosen pugilist prodigies spent an average of 16 hours a day, every day, rehearsing a synchronized tai-chi routine involving high kicks, sweeping lunges and swift punches. They lived for three months in trying conditions at a restricted army camp on the outskirts of Beijing.

“We never went out during the time we were training,” Cheng, 20, told the AP in a phone interview. “Our school is quite strict. When we stay in school we can’t go out on our own, let alone when we’re at a military camp.”

But it’s all relative, as 26-year-old Liu Yan knows. She fell 10 feet during a dance rehearsal and may spend the rest of her life as a paraplegic. But what do you expect when the event’s organizer strives to be as good as . . . North Korea? Zhang Yimou said, “North Korea is No. 1 in the world when it comes to uniformity. They are uniform beyond belief! These kind of traditional synchronized movements result in a sense of beauty. We Chinese are able to achieve this as well. Though hard training and strict discipline.” But Zhang is realistic about managing expectations. “Only North Korea could have done it better.” That’s exactly right.

Which goes to show why this mantra about taking politics out of the Olympics is a non-starter. The Olympics are hosted by a state; that state has policies; those policies find their way into the events themselves. By some estimates, China has as many as 10,000,000 industrial slaves (according to sociologist Zhou Xiaozeng). What’s 10,002,200? Taking politics out of the Olympics means ignoring the enslaved dancer who suffered paralysis in favor of the strapping American kid who’s good at swimming. If you have no problem doing that and consider the whole charade a wonderful celebration of human achievement, you are going to love the Pyongyang games.