The story of Barack Hussein Obama is part Orwell, part "Twilight Zone," part Jonestown and part "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Obama has made rational appeals to certain special interest groups (the legal profession, unions, teachers, illegal immigrants to name a few) but Obama voters are largely irrational. That is not a patronizing assessment nor is it a snide commentary about people who do not share my political views. It is simply reaffirming the obvious: Barack Obama's ongoing political campaign rarely, if ever, appeals to the voter's rational faculties. For non-members of special interest groups, supporting Barack Obama is a non-rational undertaking.
Obama followers cannot articulate their love anymore than a teenager can explain her first crush. It is visceral, not analytical. It is based not on reason, but sentiment. For many, the ardor blossomed into full blown religious expression. Fools like me underestimated the breadth and depth of Obama worship. It is real. It is too real.
This blog started out chronicling displays of Obama worship. We joked about Obama worship but we didn't literally mean it. Those idiots in 2008, they were just caught up in the moment, right? Wrong! The worship was and is literal. As genuine as Jonestown.
I wrongly thought I could change people's minds by showcasing folly in the extreme. I posted dozens of disturbing videos of silly Obama supporters. Sadly, I barely scratched the surface. There are hundreds of Youtube videos of fools bowing down to a hollow man they do not know and don't care to know. Who needs facts when one is showered with a bounty of such splendid iconography?
Somewhere along the way this blogger felt that he had made his point. Yes, the cult of Obama was as creepy as it gets. The fundamentalists would still bow down to their messiah. Can't save the mindless, no. But most Obama voters would distance themselves from the Kool-Aid cult if only to retain a measure of self-respect. Wrong! 2012.
An aside. The 2008 election made me rethink the merits of organized religion. We are a religious species. If we don't find a sane outlet for our religiosity, we might end up following a sleazy-cheesy community organizer whose real intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Religion by its very nature requires the participant to think in a pararational manner. Fully engage one's knowledge to its limits and then defer to faith. There were guard rails in place. Idolatry was strictly prohibited. The exercise of religion did not license one to practice self-delusion as a preferred lifestyle.
It is imperative that opponents of Barack Obama come to grips with reality. It is time we face the ugly truth. Let us acknowledge the obvious:
1. The worship of Barack Obama is literal.
2. The cult of Barack Obama is colossal. Humanity has never before witnessed a religious cult that has snared so many, so fast. The ramifications have largely been ignored.
3. The worship of Barack Obama is by no means spontaneous. From fainting women to the Obama Halo, from the rewritten spirituals that praise the new messiah to the hypnotic speeches void of content, the deification of Barack Obama is deliberate and it is contrived. Look closely and you will see the marionette's strings and the steely determination written on the faces of skillful puppet masters.
4. Obama fundamentalists, as with other fundamentalists, cannot be swayed with logic. They will not and cannot "come to their senses."
5. Obama worshipers are dangerous people.
6. A personality that embraces his own deification is a dangerous human being! This can never be under emphasized.
I want to be slightly less snide when discussing this video. I am always interested in expressions where the viewer is uncertain if the expressor is serious or satirical. Satire is harder than it looks and even when done perfectly it misses a lot of the audience. A large portion of the world simply has no sense of satire.
One of the worst failures of satire is the movie, "Bob Roberts." Tim Robbins creates a character who was a Tea Party type before there were Tea Party types. I went to the movies to see Robbins deliver his broadside against the newest brand of conservatives. (This would have been in the early 90's but I am too lazy to look up the year.) I would be disappointed.
Bob Roberts, the object of fear and ridicule, was more appealing than his onscreen nemesis or real life politicians of the day. The nemesis was played by Gore Vidal and he scared me. Don't give me vampires or chainsaws to put the thump in my chest and the moist in my palms. Show me Gore Vidal's magnanimous performance in "Bob Roberts" and you might hear me scream.
Gore Vidal played a fossilized senator who was in Washington for 36 years (if I recall correctly.). Bob Roberts came to knock the dinosaur off his pedestal. Who you rooting for? In Tim Robbins world, the 6-term senator was the innocent, helpless to the savvy, snappy Bob Roberts.
How many people--even people who might be sympathetic to Robbin's political views--walked away believing the bad guy was the good guy and vice versa? Robbins designated Bob Roberts the villain but I left the theater feeling that the lesser of two evils had won.
There are other problems with "Bob Roberts." Bob Roberts is a folk singer and he sings songs that could comfortably be sung at a tea party. Whereas we know that Robbins is making fun of Roberts, the irony just does not ironize. It's a curve ball that does not curve. We still call it a curve ball even though it's just a slow, straight pitch. We reference the pitcher's intent rather than his performance.
Watch the song "Complain." If you did not know better would you know there was ironic intent? I wonder how many people would.
Here's a quick look at "Complain" from "Bob Roberts."
IRONIC OR SERIOUS?
"Bob Roberts" will always be remembered as failed satire, failed irony and possibly unintended sympathies for one's enemies. The commentary on YouTube and elsewhere often states something like "conservatives are too stupid to get the joke." That is Robbins fault, not the audience's fault. Contrast this movie with "Team America: World Police" for an example of unambiguous satire.
Which brings us to the Electric Illuminati. One thing that jumps off the page is the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" reference that "Bob Roberts" also references. Note: As this is posted, I cannot find the original Bob Dylan "rock video before there were rock videos." Dylan's copyright guardians are known for their vigilance and Dylan vids are frequently pulled from the shelves en masse. There are other vids by Weird Al and others that mimic the classic, should one want further elucidation but I will not be posting them at this time.
SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE A SIGN
Electric Illuminati strings together words in an almost random fashion. So long as they rhyme, who cares? An anthropologist from Mars would be challenged to put this in the category of cheesy Obama propaganda or satire reflecting the utter silliness of Obama's cultish believers. I am sorry to say that this would fit into the former category.
Whereas Tim Robbins delivers a curve that does not curve, Electric Illuminati hurls a wild pitch that bounces into the catcher's groin. With teammates like these, who needs opponents?
PROPAGANDA OR PARODY? YOU DECIDE
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