Post by jeffolie on May 18, 2008 11:07:21 GMT -6
Barack Obama ‘saves the world’
First, it was “Change you can believe in,” a nice friendly bit of folderol that was no more scary than “I Like Ike.” Heck, Bill Clinton used “It’s Time to Change America” back in 1992, and he only scared a few Republicans.
But lately the slogan coming out of the Obama campaign is “We can save the world,” which shows that some people can believe anything — and will — without the slightest provocation or evidence.
Now before any of Barack Obama’s supporters light their torches and come after me, I want to point out that I am not making any of this up. That really is a slogan used by Obama’s campaign — like it or not. I personally don’t like it, and I don’t see any reason why I should not say so. It seems to me the reason our country is in the mess it is in today is because too few people are willing to speak up and say what they believe. The golden rule today is “Go along to get along.” Only trouble is we are not getting along.
I’ve been able to find references to it that date back as far as the Texas primary. A Time magazine story refers to “Obama... running Austin television ads that are vaguely Woodstockian with smiling faces and young, casually dressed supporters cheering and waving. ‘We can save the world!’ the graphic exclaims.” (www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1715329,00.html)
I suppose in some respect it doesn’t matter whether you are promising to save the planet or save the world. Either is overreaching, but offering to save the world also seems a bit, well, messianic. How could you vote against someone who can save the world? That silly Hillary just wants to give people universal health care. How can she possibly compete with a brazen promise of salvation?
But for those few people who still have their feet on the ground, a couple of questions — When exactly did politics become concerned with salvation? (I always thought that was the proper job of religion.) And how exactly do we save the world?
In other countries, with other systems, political leaders have used their personal charisma and rhetorical gifts to achieve great power. In the last century, many examples abound, most notably I suppose Hitler and Mao. In both cases, there were certainly those among their followers who may have mistaken powerful men for true avatars — gods who have descended to earth for a special purpose (usually mixed in with nationalistic agendas).
No, I am not saying that Barack Obama is Jim Jones — or Mao — or Hitler. What I am saying is that the lessons of our past — our very recent past — are full of examples of what happens when people follow blindly a leader who they don’t really know. After all, Hitler wasn’t “Hitler” either when he was a 20-year-old art student. He only became “Hitler” because the German people allowed him to do so.
The American people have never been similarly fooled. Could you imagine anyone voting for Richard Nixon if his slogan had been “We can save the world”? Or what about Hillary Clinton? She would be locked up with 24-hour observation for exhibiting symptoms of megalomania if she tried to save the world! If John McCain said he was going to save the world, people would start building bomb shelters. But Obama’s messianic fervor is dismissed as “change you can believe in.”
It looks more and more like Obama will win the Democratic nomination (or anointing, which may be more appropriate in his case) so I would just encourage people to start thinking about whether or not they think salvation comes from slick-talking politicians or from God. If it is from God, you might start praying.
www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/05/18/columns/columns01.txt
Megalomaniac Obama to Save the World
megalomania n. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.
First, it was “Change you can believe in,” a nice friendly bit of folderol that was no more scary than “I Like Ike.” Heck, Bill Clinton used “It’s Time to Change America” back in 1992, and he only scared a few Republicans.
But lately the slogan coming out of the Obama campaign is “We can save the world,” which shows that some people can believe anything — and will — without the slightest provocation or evidence.
Now before any of Barack Obama’s supporters light their torches and come after me, I want to point out that I am not making any of this up. That really is a slogan used by Obama’s campaign — like it or not. I personally don’t like it, and I don’t see any reason why I should not say so. It seems to me the reason our country is in the mess it is in today is because too few people are willing to speak up and say what they believe. The golden rule today is “Go along to get along.” Only trouble is we are not getting along.
I’ve been able to find references to it that date back as far as the Texas primary. A Time magazine story refers to “Obama... running Austin television ads that are vaguely Woodstockian with smiling faces and young, casually dressed supporters cheering and waving. ‘We can save the world!’ the graphic exclaims.” (www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1715329,00.html)
I suppose in some respect it doesn’t matter whether you are promising to save the planet or save the world. Either is overreaching, but offering to save the world also seems a bit, well, messianic. How could you vote against someone who can save the world? That silly Hillary just wants to give people universal health care. How can she possibly compete with a brazen promise of salvation?
But for those few people who still have their feet on the ground, a couple of questions — When exactly did politics become concerned with salvation? (I always thought that was the proper job of religion.) And how exactly do we save the world?
In other countries, with other systems, political leaders have used their personal charisma and rhetorical gifts to achieve great power. In the last century, many examples abound, most notably I suppose Hitler and Mao. In both cases, there were certainly those among their followers who may have mistaken powerful men for true avatars — gods who have descended to earth for a special purpose (usually mixed in with nationalistic agendas).
No, I am not saying that Barack Obama is Jim Jones — or Mao — or Hitler. What I am saying is that the lessons of our past — our very recent past — are full of examples of what happens when people follow blindly a leader who they don’t really know. After all, Hitler wasn’t “Hitler” either when he was a 20-year-old art student. He only became “Hitler” because the German people allowed him to do so.
The American people have never been similarly fooled. Could you imagine anyone voting for Richard Nixon if his slogan had been “We can save the world”? Or what about Hillary Clinton? She would be locked up with 24-hour observation for exhibiting symptoms of megalomania if she tried to save the world! If John McCain said he was going to save the world, people would start building bomb shelters. But Obama’s messianic fervor is dismissed as “change you can believe in.”
It looks more and more like Obama will win the Democratic nomination (or anointing, which may be more appropriate in his case) so I would just encourage people to start thinking about whether or not they think salvation comes from slick-talking politicians or from God. If it is from God, you might start praying.
www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/05/18/columns/columns01.txt
Megalomaniac Obama to Save the World
megalomania n. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.