I'm wondering this morning, if I am immune to Obama.
George twittered that if I have to ask... meaning that I must not be.
It's not a question of Obama actually. Although I haven't made up my mind whether or not I can stand him, I'm already decidedly contemptuous of people who appear to me to be obsessed with him either pro or con. But I also realize that these are the same people I've been living with in the US since forever. And for matters on which there is a great deal more clarity to me, like the reasons we are in Iraq and what we should expect from that conflict, I already have a great deal of contempt for my opponents. So much so that I can rest reasonably easy that their whining, while annoying, is insignificant in the bigger scheme of things.
This is a grave temptation, and it troubles me.
You see, my entire life as a progressive has been marked by that contempt for the American middle class. I know the feeling of being deeply into the most esoteric and hip bohemian scene. I know what it's like to make Cornel West laugh. I've been the cool guy with the smart question at the Studio Museum in Harlem on the occasion of Gina Dent's book signing. I know how to be part of the cognoscenti, intimately familiar with the impetus to demand 'education' for the [benefit] of the [ignorant] masses. I know what it is to glorify the common dissonance and weave it into a fashionable trope - to make the backwards Malcolm X hat into a symbol of youthful black resistance against the lifeless gray existence of the clueless white proletariat and their corporate masters. In fact, I know how to wordsmith that very sentence into something that sounds exactly like what we all expect Michelle Obama to say the next time she gets a chance. And I know the permanent franchise the cognoscenti have as the voice of the people, even when it's honest and heartfelt and requires days, weeks and months in the ghettos, hoods, barrios of that vast GTA version of America.
I don't want to be like that.
So I'm trying to restrain myself and say that I am not immune to Obama. To be immune from Obama is to play the corporate hedged bet. To release oneself from the responsibility of hogwash going wrong. To leave people to their fate and pretending to be surprised with the shit hits the fan and the disillusionment sets in. To play both sides from a safe distance , not care. To withdraw investments of serious consideration for the public sphere and the will of the average Joe and know you'll be protected no matter what turmoil troubles the hoi polloi. I can retreat to my gated community and shoot at whatever moves. To be immune from Obama is to not really care if he wins because you can get through it OK. It is to be invested in cynicism. Well, you ask, how much can he actually screw up?
But in particular I am concerned about his foreign policy. Would he dismiss Petraeus? I mean, there are no mainstream media guys who are on the ground in Iraq - we could all pretend that Obama's election makes everything all good, and that the American image so many people mouth is tarnished in the world could suddenly turn gold. In Obamaland, people could pretend that Myanmar is cool, and we'd never hear stories that they are denying access by USAID because we are vicious imperialists. The story just gets buried. And I could pretend that I'm immune and that I don't care, because whatever is Myanmar anyway? I could pretend that the following factoid doesn't matter:
Iraqi sources report that al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been captured in Mosul. If this report is correct, al-Masri almost made it to his 2-year anniversary as commander. He took over al Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7, 2006 in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.
And I could stop subscribing to the news sources that would tell me that because I could find something nice to think about and not concern myself with the hash he'd make of the hot pursuit of Al Qaeda all over the world.
I could pretend to be immune to Obama and everybody who votes for him. But that would be treacherous to my conscience. So I guess I'm going to have to make up my mind after all, and really fight against him if what I believe to be true about his policies is revealed to be the case. I'd rather be really cool and say it doesn't matter, but I'd be lying to myself.
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