Barack Obama's meteoric rise to stardom is an interesting phenomena. It is not often that a politician can capture the imagination of so many people across such a broad spectrum. For this to happen, the ground must be fertile, and fertile it is. After 8 years of Bush, and before that, 8 years of Clinton, and before that, 4 years of Bush, I suspect that there is a large portion of the population suffering from both Bush and Clinton fatigue. People are hungry for a new message, even if that message is no deeper than "hope for the future." Handsome in an exotic way, articulate almost to a fault, full of youth and vigor, Obama provides the perfect vessel into which people can project their vision of the future.
Kathleen Parker writing in the Washington Post elaborates:
So what is the source of this infatuation with Obama? How to explain the hysteria? The religious fervor? The devotion? The weeping and fainting and utter euphoria surrounding a candidate who had the audacity to run for leader of the free world on a platform of mere hope?
If anthropologists made predictions the way meteorologists do, they might have anticipated Obama's astronomical rise to supernova status in 2008 of the Common Era. Consider the cultural coordinates, and Obama's intersection with history becomes almost inevitable.
To play weatherman for a moment, he is a perfect storm of the culture of narcissism, the cult of celebrity, and a secular society in which fathers (both the holy and the secular) have been increasingly marginalized from the lives of a generation of young Americans.
All of these trends have been gaining momentum the past few decades. Social critic Christopher Lasch named the culture of narcissism a generation ago and cited addiction to celebrity as one of the disease's symptoms -- all tied to the decline of the family.
That culture has merely become more exaggerated as spiritual alienation and fatherlessness have collided with technology (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) that enables the self-absorption of the narcissistic personality.
I agree that the cult of celebrity and the marginalization of fathers as role models are symptoms of the larger problem that is narcissism. It is not surprising that narcissism is so prevalent in our society. One should outgrow their narcissistic tendencies at some point during adolescence. Sadly, and to the detriment of society, this is not happening. Personal responsibility and accountability are the greatest antidotes to narcissism; and these two traits are anathema to government's reason for existence as they greatly diminish the need for what government offers. If one has a nation of citizens who are responsible and accountable, there is no need for government to act as a nanny. It is one thing to treat children like children, it is another thing to treat adults like children. Treating adults like children arrests one's development, and though there are numerous side effects to this, the most dangerous is narcissism. Perhaps this is why Senator Obama has such wide appeal among our nation's youth, and those who's personal growth was arrested during their adolescent years. I am not saying that every person that likes Obama is a childish narcissist, but what he offers seems to hold more sway with those possessing a narcissistic bias than those who do not.
Then there's this:
But underpinning that popularity is something that transcends mere policy or politics. It is hunger, and that hunger is clearly spiritual. Human beings seem to have a yearning for the transcendent -- hence thousands of years of religion -- but we have lately shied away from traditional approaches and old gods.
Thus, in post-Judeo-Christian America, the sports club is the new church. Global warming is the new religion. Vegetarianism is the new sacrament. Hooking up, the new prayer. Talk therapy, the new witnessing. Tattooing and piercing, the new sacred symbols and rituals.
Obama as an empty vessel offers his supporters anything they choose to fill him with. He reminds me of a big stick of fluffy cotton candy. Looks great, tastes good, but ultimately un-fulfilling; and if you eat too much, you'll wake up with a belly ache.
I am of the opinion that many of those who are currently swooning under the spell of the Pope of Hope will wake up with a belly ache soon enough.
When a Man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything.--G. K. Chesterton
