Are politics your religion?
Some of us do think that designer labels will save our souls. That’s bad. But it’s a whole lot better than thinking that, say, the Führer will save your soul, or a crusade against the infidels, or nationalism, or a host of other collective salvations. When the inevitable disappointment from consumerism comes, it’s a private tragedy. When the inevitable disappointment from a collective salvation comes, it’s a national crisis inviting some new, possibly worse, collective salvation. Until humans learn the wisdom of angels, I will remain a great supporter of crass consumerism and conspicuous consumption.
-Roger Koppl (via Samizdata). I was trying last night to articulate to a good friend (who also happens to be an Obama fan) why I find the worship of this man so scary. Just walking around New York City, there are dozens and dozens of shops and market stalls flogging t-shirts and other paraphernalia which essentially shouts, “Obama is our savior!” It’s either deeply disturbing (if you’re like me, and have no belief in collective salvation) or awesome (if, like a frightening number of people, you do believe in collective salvation and that Obama is the man to bring it to the US and the world). It gives me the creeps, and Roger Koppl does a better job than I could of articulating why.
Filed under: Life
It’s not so much that Obama himself is creepy (though clearly he prefers statist solutions) but rather the degree to which his followers are falling over themselves to check their brains and responsibility at the door and arrogate all decisionmaking power to their savior.
Yeah, Obama seems non-threatening. Which makes him scarier to me.
Amen.
Obama doesn’t frighten me, the savior mentality does.
Plus, when his supporters prop him up as a savior they are essentially dooming themselves to disappointment and him to failure because he can’t possibly live up to the hype.