The fiery explo­sions are a metaphor for the destruc­tion of demo­c­ra­tic governance.

Olympic orga­niz­ers sur­prised observers Sun­day by stag­ing the clos­ing cer­e­monies as a Trib­ute to the Demise of Late Capitalism.

The pageant took view­ers on a wist­ful jour­ney through the gar­ish excesses of the past 50 years of pop cul­ture, with a know­ing nod to the inex­orable decline faced by west­ern democ­ra­cies in the face of preda­tory tri­umphal capitalism.

Young peo­ple danced vig­or­ously - obliv­i­ous to the explo­sions going on around them, in a per­fect metaphor for the present generation’s hope­less and mis­guided opti­mism, as one by one, the struc­tures of demo­c­ra­tic gov­er­nance are dis­man­tled and replaced by oli­gar­chal rule.

Fit­tingly, the penul­ti­mate dance num­ber used fire as a cen­tral metaphor for the scour­ing of tra­di­tional civil order and it’s replace­ment by harsh plu­to­cratic rule.

When sex­a­ge­nar­ian rock­ers The Who took the stage, belt­ing out My Gen­er­a­tion as the last num­ber of the night, it was in all like­li­hood the first time they really meant: “I hope I die before I get old.”

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