The Man Who Fell To Earth
I saw a blog post last week on a San Francisco area website that asked the question "Is Obama an ascended being?" The exact quote was something like is he an "enlightened" person. You see, back in 2008, that is the kind of questions those in the blogosphere and media were asking. They were wondering if he was a gift from the gods or even a god himself. What exacty had he done to deserve such considerstion? Was he a great healer and restorer of people, or neighborhoods, or states, or anything else? Did he impress people with his incredible thinking or rhetorical skills? Had he come up wth some compeling, new, way to do things in the world? Had he fundamentally chaged any area of the places he had lived and worked? Just exactly what had he done to deserve all of the worshipful adulation and speculation?
Do you remember all of the art and photography that depicted him as the likeness of FDR, JFK, Teddy Roosevelt, and even Ronald Reagan? Not to mention regularly being compared to Abraham Lincoln, and other great men of our country's past.
He was GIVEN a Nobel prize before his first year in office was past, based on, well, good feelings, because he had not done anything yet. Certainly nothing to the level of deserving a Nobel peace prize. It was just for being Barak Obama. And that's my problem, and yours, in fact.
I'll tell you why. Because a sane man, a truly great man, would refuse to be portrayed in these obscene ways. A truly visionary leader would have eschewed this kind of adulation. But see Barak Obama in front of Greek columns declaring the time of healing the earth itself and calming the rising tides. Taking to himself larger than life importance and receiving adulation and worship instead of calling people to humility and hard work, and something even somewhat measurable to some standard whatsoever.
This is the greatest failing of Barak Obama, his own hubris. Allowing people to see him as some savior, some kind of messianic figure that will singlehandedly change the very fabric of the times we live in without all of that baggage from, you know, actual achievement.
I'll finish with the best quote to sum this all up: "Shame on you, Barak Obama!" Thanks, Hillary, you were more right than you could know.
