http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/005481.html#more
OK. tell me again why this guy sucks so bad? Doug has mentioned reading about the history of Sweden was it? I don't have the book here, but I remember reading about the rise of democratic socialism there, too. The story I read wasn't about material infrastructure, but about an ideational infrastructure--a rhetoric, a mythic tapestry that told the story of why creating a social democratic society was a valuable, good, decent thing for people to aspire to. It was about the creation of a mythopoetic narrative that connected the past to the present to the future. It was charismatic in the sense that it held up an ideal to which people might aspire and gave them a sense of meaning and purpose that went beyond eking out a living or "getting some of my own."
Anyway, it seems to me that Obama, in that great oratory tradition, is capable of doing just that and speaking to these values that don't just appeal to people's "interests" but make them feel part of a grander narrative, something that can sustain them as they make sacrifices.
so, what is wrong with it. Why was Obama attacked by, who was it?, Joe W and Yoshie? Is it just that you're genuinely so disgusted with the Democratic party that you refuse to support anyone who's been selected as the next boy-genius. I understand that. But, tell me, would you attack Obama for the same things if the Greens or some other third party selected him?
Tell me, if we really want to cultivate the soil in which we might grow a genuine social movement, don't we need stories like the one Obama tells? His story isn't the soil. His story isn't the plant. His story is the nutrients that feed the soil that feeds the plant. And, of course, we--that social movement and historical circumstances that--also feed the soil that feeds the plant. That is, we advance and radicalize "the struggles and wishes of the age."
kelley
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling