Delusional Hope: The Obama Rapture
Think about the prevalence of hope: sports teams heading into a championship game, research scientists envisioning a Nobel Prize, people in the criminal justice system awaiting trial, entrepreneurs starting a new business, people starting off on a long-awaited vacation, American Idol contestants, college seniors dreaming of becoming superrich, and all those supporters of Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and other presidential candidates that will not reach the White House.
Hope produces far more losers than winners. Hope is enjoyable until failure hits. But most people do not give up on hope, just move on to the next hope.
Obama hoped that he could tap into the national desire for change from the awful conditions produced by the Bush administration by selling hope to voters rather than his experience and accomplishments. Like a political medicine-man he has succeeded as a compelling seller of hope, better than the best infomercial charlatan.
Like a self-fulfilling prophesy, his proof that hope works is his life story and political campaign. This resembles a con man selling a real estate scheme by showing pictures of his yacht, estate and Rolls Royce. Millions of consumers succumb because of their hope that riches can be obtained by following the quack's advice and formula. Such false hope succeeds because people buy into wrong or deceitful information. False hope can be revealed through objective examination of the facts, assumptions or promises used by the hope purveyor.
Delusional hope is much more insidious. The trick behind delusional hope is that recipients of the hope message supply their own justifications and rationalizations for taking ownership of the hope. As much as delusional hope comes from the hope messenger, it is also self-inflicted to a large degree. In fact, the hope messenger may be honest and authentic, like Obama, truly believing in his hope message. Those who embrace the hope message have many possible reasons and motivations for doing so.
It may be therapeutic by offsetting depression, stress or anger. It makes people happier, feel good and have something positive to look forward to in an otherwise dismal world. It provides comfort and some sense of security. Delusional hope is exactly like a placebo medicine, producing an apparent positive result without any valid reason for doing so, except satisfying the desire for a positive result.
Obama has produced an epidemic of contagious delusional hope for a population rightfully disgusted with ordinary politics and politicians. Like an excellent magician, people are mesmerized by the trick of promising to turn YOUR hope into HIS success.
What happens if president Obama does not actually deliver any real, substantive changes and reforms in government and public policy? Who will be blamed? Hope-happy Obama or a nation of hope-losers for electing him?
This mass delusional hope befits our delusional democracy with its delusional prosperity. Rather than the usual lies, Obama offers hope for change, as if the ruling plutocracy will fade away and stop using their considerable influence over government to funnel an obscene fraction of the nation's income and wealth to the richest Americans and corporations.
Money is key to seeing Obama for what he really is - an insider politician. He has backed away from his clear promise to use public financing for the general election, as John McCain also promised to do. His broken commitment results from his ability to raise enormous sums from hope addicts. Besides many small contributors, he has received enormous financial support from a number of business sectors. He provided about $700,000 to other politicians in the past year to get their support. When it comes to money, Obama seems much too much like an ordinary politician.
What is the audacity of hope? The confidence that most Americans will eat the political narcotic - hook, line and sinker. Welcome to the Obama rapture.
Published by Joel Hirschhorn
Author: Delusional Democracy, Prosperity Without Pollution & Sprawl Kills. Senior official Congressional Office of Technology Assessment & National Governors Assn; full prof Univ. of Wisc. Publishing regul... View profile
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17 Comments
Post a Commentcontinued from below-- at least trying to unify people. It is not delusional to think giving Obama a shot at getting the ball rolling.
I too have been frustrated by the whole voting for the lesser evil thing, and in fact, I was not an Obama fan until a couple of months ago when I started listening to him closely and looked into his past progressive credentials. If I had it my way, Dennis Kucinich would be the candidate. Anyway Joel, what do you propose people do if giving Obama a chance is so wrong and simply a lesser of two evils vote? Should we just write articles on AC and whine about how everyone sucks? I have determined that there is something special about the guy, and the reason I think he has a better chance than anyone to bring change is that he has the ability to inspire people, and inspired people start and join movements that force government to change. All significant progress throughout history has been brought about by the people, and Obama, unlike Hillary and most of the other major candidates, speaks in these terms--about empowering people and getting people interested and involved, and at least tryin
The biggest thing to fear with an Obama presidency is that millions of hope-filled Americans will distort the reality of his presidency to justify their hopes, even though objectively he does not produce anything near the results that he and they had hoped for!!!!! Of course, Obama and his supporters will blame many others for failure to produce change and reform, but of course all such obstacles (e.g., special interests, lobbyists, Congress) are normal and inevitable obstacles -- which raises the issue NOW, of exactly HOW Obama will overcome sucn inevitable obstacles. A lot of what I hear in people annoyed with my views (though I write to stimulate thinking) is lesser-evil justification for choosing Obama over others. Lesser-evil voting is the reason our plutocracy keeps flourishing.
Ever hear of Thomas online? Bill Clinton and Dubai? Recall Hillary's blowing the whistle on GWB due to Neil and his conflict of interest failing to mention her own with Bill? Best not give people false hope, might as well tell the truth and have them ask for that cup of corruptions Kool Aid now. The opposite of hope is hopeless suicidal depression you see. Just when someone convinced me that I could make my voice count in DC....should never have bothered to register to vote. I am delusional you see. Hello Iran, a return of the draft to bolster our lack of adequate troops, and look out if we pushed the last straw on the global camel's back~already cautioned by China (who we are heavily in debt to pay for Iraq) have cautioned us about invading Iran.
Robert De Niro, Grateful Dead members (yeah they may be delusional), the former Caroline Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Toni Morrison (yeah the one who's offhand comment dubbed Bill the first black president and who never endorsed a candidate before ditto) Joan Baez, Governor Sebelius, Cornell West, all of Jimmy Carter's family members except one, all the newspaper editors of Texas's major newspapers, editors of the Los Angeles Times, Alice Walker, Maria Shriver (whose husband endorses McCain), Stevie Wonder, Charles the Republican Barkley and countless citizens and elected officials are drinking from the same Kool Aid cup. The delusional ones are those who are voting for an impeached ex president, known liar and womanizer to have a third term in office with a carbon copy "co-presidency" of the 1990s. If you love war, I am sure the Republicans will do you fine as will Clinton who voted yes on the Iran Resolution.
joel-
you could not be further from reality in your assertions... when i was in training (medical) and we were trying to understand some concepts about statistics, we kept records on one month of nba basketball scores... the result from some of the statistical tests on these results showed that there was no statistical difference between the winning and losing scores which might lead one to conclude that it is meaningless to play the games at all... but in fact some team or the other always wins and i think in a similar way, you are discounting the fact that:
-someone is going to win the nomination and election...
-it really sucks right now, that is, there is nothing good about living now durng what will be w's pathetic legacy...
-there is no 'proven' plan that works for what currently ails us; i doubt the problem could be easily described...
-the modern world monarchic democracy that is suggested by hillary's candidacy (bush, clinton, bush, clinton) is something that was
Another important point about Obama and his promise to unite political interests is that he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate; why in the world would people think that such an ultra-left politcian would really unite diverse political interests????
I saw the headline of your article and immediately went Amen! So many otherwise intelligent and educated people are brainwashed by this guy. People treat him like the Messiah. You can't say anything bad about Obama without people accusing you of being cynical, racist, or traitor to your race. Obama DOES have a platform--he's a party-line liberal, but many people are voting for him not because of his platform, but because he makes them feel good. I'm not against hope--I love hope! I'm just not a fan of the "let government fix everything" mentality that some of his supporters buy into. By the way, I was a Romney supporter.
What should strike objective people as fascinating is the close resemblence between supporters of Ron Paul and Barack Obama; both groups have cult-like qualities.
Here is wonderful article on Obama supporters:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1074977&format=&page=2&listingType=col
It's quite ironic, Hirschhorn, that you ramble on with misguided analogies and nothing of substance, in an article that purports to say Obama is nothing but empty rhetoric. It so happens that many of Obama's supporters are among the most educated in the country. And if you actually did some research and investigation, rather than sit around coming up with drug metaphors and searching for photos of Obama with an afro, you might find that Barack offers more substance than any of the other candidates. If your hope is to persuade readers by telling them their support for a candidate is symptomatic of mental illness, then perhaps you are the one who is delusional.