The wisdom of crowds
US elections 2008: Barack Obama's critics say his campaign has become a cult
of personality, but what's wrong with a little optimism?
Michael Tomasky
The Guardian
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2008/02/
the_wisdom_of_crowds.html
It is evidently now incumbent upon Barack Obama to make a campaign appearance
not in Milwaukee or Madison or Kenosha - Wisconsin cities that would
constitute logical pit-stops in the week leading up to that state's important
primary - but on the Sea of Galilee.
There's a public beach there, as I recall from a trip made in my youth, and
what Obama apparently needs to do is to walk across the sand and into the
water, probably at least sternum high, in order to prove to doubters that he
cannot walk on it.
Because, you see, Obama's campaign has become a "cult of personality". Young
people flock to his appearances. Some of them have mystical, faraway looks in
their eyes. Many speak of the man in a hopeful and buoyant key that is not
"appropriate" to politics. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's supporters are by
contrast a wizened (and wiser) cohort, alert to life's inherent unfairness.
Obama's people want the delivered truth. Clinton's just want some healthcare.
Like any caricature, the portrait has some basis in truth. Any time you get
millions of young people involved in a project, it takes on the feel of a
movement. It becomes a little idealistic. Its defining features do tend to
include optimism - even perhaps a somewhat unrealistic optimism - and do not
tend to include steely pragmatism.
I would have thought these were good things! Would it be better that young
people were once again floating along on the usual currents of dissolution
and apathy? Would dark pessimism about the country be a preferable state? And
most of all, is it incumbent upon the candidate, having inspired this
reaction in people, to tamp it down?
The New York Times implied as much last week in an editorial that said the
Obama campaign seemed at times "to teeter on becoming a cult of personality -
a feeling that the candidate and those around him do nothing to dispel".
Later came Paul Krugman, who repeated the phrase in a column a few days ago
that bordered on incoherent (equating Obama's appeal with George Bush's
flight-suit trick, among other oddities). It was in mulling over these gems
that I got my idea - brilliant, if I may say so myself! - for the ablutionary
rite at Galilee.
But more seriously: There are some obvious differences among types of mass
movements. It's pretty clear looking through history that the scary ones are
built on anger that demagogic leaders channel into hatred of a scapegoat, and
it's pretty clear that while Obama and his admirers are angry about a lot of
things that have happened in this country - exactly the same things that
Clinton and her admirers are angry about, by the way - Obama's people aren't
hating on a powerless minority group, and Obama isn't a demagogue feeding
their seething resentments. Jim Sleeper has an excellent post over at TPM Caf
é that goes into more detail and makes an argument about Obama's ability to
"balance anger with disciplined love".
In political terms, the phrase "cult of personality" comes, of course, from
Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech" in which he denounced Stalinism and
Stalin worship. The phrase has taken on more general meanings, and I wouldn't
allege that the Times and Krugman were equating Obama with Stalin. But I do
think that given this particular history people ought to be careful about
such phrases. "Final solution" has generic meanings, too, but you don't see
editorial boards and pundits saying that Politician X has come up with a
final solution to this or that problem. And with damn good reason.
Obama has excited millions of people not only about politics but about the
possibility and potential of their country. He's done it by imploring them to
be hopeful and united. This is sinister or creepy? Please. That's just about
certain people's need to be cynical or clever. I understand that and will
even allow that the world needs such people, who will stand outside the crowd
and ask it difficult questions. But cynicism and cleverness can be overrated,
as indeed Obama may yet prove.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 122.127.70.106