Self Flagellation

Mere weeks before the election, I had an epiphany. It occurred to me why Barak Obama had such significant support throughout the country. As I listened to talk radio and references to him as the”Messiah”, it finally hit me why the moniker was so apropos. Looking back over the last 8 years, it’s easy to see the way society has cultivated a healthy dose of self –hatred. The actions of the administration have either been tolerated or detested. Whereas the global perception of the U.S. becomes a direct reflection upon its constituents, the self-loathing was continually fueled by outside forces.

Then along comes Barak Obama, by all accounts an outsider; barely born a U.S. citizen, brought up outside the mainland culture of the U.S. His coming of age, though, could not have been better timed. The societal self-loathing had reached a crescendo, committing to geo-political policies that left nearly everyone with a bad taste in their mouth. The only thing worse at this point than staying the course would be to reverse course. In either case, both were considered “evils”. What society needed was a leader to make the decision for them, to execute the desired plan they were secretly unwilling to articulate.

Society needed someone to make the self-loathing cease. They needed someone who was willing to take the heat for the decision they refused to make – to withdraw militarily from the world stage. Moreover, the long-standing angst over our global citizenship with regard to the environment could not be ignored any longer. If that wasn’t enough, Obama brought more latent issues out into the open, such as the state of the health care system, that hadn’t been addressed since the first Clinton presidential term.

With that said, with Obama’s ability to empathize with the emotionally damaged constituency, he also brings salvation through pain. Atonement can’t be achieved without a “higher power” providing absolution, through whatever means. As their Messiah, Obama will bring that absolution to those who seek it. He will forgive the sins of those who illegally enter this country, influence the economy, and offer only burdens in return. He will bring absolution to the wealthy who feel no responsibility for their wealth, who will “share” it with the less fortunate so that they may mitigate the feeling that it was ill-gotten. In so doing, he will also assuage the guilt of those who believe our country suffers from the Microsoft Syndrome. That is to say that our global, economic domination (like Microsoft) has no morality to it.

The significant irony to all of this is that the cure to what ails us is so draconian as to stagger the mind. In India, there still remains a remnant of a pre-Christ religion known as the Jains. One of the tenets of Jainism revolves around absolution through asceticism. I contend that it is a modern form of this that will ultimately satisfy the masses who believe Obama will deliver them. Through pain is absolution. The real question for the rest of us, whose convictions have not faltered over the last two terms, is how much pain will we ultimately endure? Will one term be enough? Will two? Or, if you subscribe to Obama’s rhetoric, three?

As I conclude my thoughts on the matter, it further occurs to me what the next decade holds for us. I contend that we aren’t in for an extension of the Clinton years. Instead, I ardently believe the next decade will hearken back to FDR and the social programs that emerged from the Great Depression.