On Tue, 4 Mar 2008, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> All absolutely true. But this is kind of a straw man, no? I mean does
>> anyone on this list believe otherwise?
>
> So why do people get so preposterously excited about him?
Why do people get so worked up at sporting events? The cascading pleasure of having one's desire amplified 1000-fold by the feedback loop effect of crowd sympathy. And with it, the pleasure of self-confirmation and the pleasure of feeling enfolded in something larger than yourself.
As I've said before, to experience this you have to want to experience it. But it is fun. Experientially it's not really that different from the fun of a mosh pit. The only difference is what feelings are being amplified -- in a mosh pit, alienation from adult society and the community of youth; at a political rally, the underlying emotional convictions of liberalism. The fundamental -- and vague -- shared beliefs that define a collective identity.
The reason they feel this at Obama rallies and not Clinton rallies is that Obama's got charisma: the ability to say things in the right way to get them to resonate in a crowd. And to play and build on that resonance.
I think some of Obama's critics are people who are dispositionally creeped about by emotional crowds. The kind of people who would find the fervor at a Knicks game creepy. Could you be one of them? Because it seems an odd question, asking where the preposterous excitement comes from as if it has to be founded on a substantial difference in the world.
Nothing could be more less important in the real world than the outcome of a sports game. Sports are a made up world created almost solely just so people can have the fun of getting this excited. And what charisma does is harness a little of that desie to be excited to an electoral cause.
It might be able to do other things as well. But it does do that. The only "cause" for the excitement is a genius for pep talking. But if you want to win a content, pep is a good thing.
Michael