Obama and the Politics of Crowds (Very good)

Wall St.Journal ^ | OCTOBER 30, 2008 | FOUAD AJAMI

[MortMan]

Self-ping

[uvular]

Rush said something last week about the 'tone' of Obama's speeches-like there was an intentional reverb (echo)coming through that is not noticeable on clips from McCain speeches.

I've listened since then, and I do hear something different-Obama's clips have the sound of old FDR speeches, ala, "Today (today, today) is a day (day,day)..", and some of McCain's clips sound like he's in a soundproof room.

Just an odd observation...

[SueRae]

Excelletn read. Forwarded to everyone on my mailing list.

And printed and added to my collection of required reading for my Leftie friend.

[eureka!]

marking

[Old Professer]

No matter how this election goes, Obama can never go back to being a mere senator.

Elected, he will busy himself, surrounded by his adoring acolytes in the business of choosing his cabinet and his palace guard, just long enough to set out on a series of victory speeches, overseas trips to advise allies and foes alike.

If he loses, he will lead massive crowds in his wake until he turns and one day, finding himself alone he will embark on his true calling - the salvation of the world, an unnamed ambassador-at-large to bring about, at last, world peace.

Once bitten by the viral viper of fame and adulation the afflicted must keep going back for more.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Bingo.

The last time we saw cult hysteria like this the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
was loading the mesmerized followers into buses.

The Obama messiah movement is right out of Professor Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages . Mass hysteria and delusions. It will have equally disastrous results. It is like Third World street hysteria. A charismatic con artist with borderline personality disorder promises to solve all global problems, poverty, end to divisions of classes and races, world peace, healing the planet, calming the seas. As always, it ends with more strife, economic disasters, renewal of warfare. Same old story. A chapter from Cohn, Gibbon, or Toynbee. Or Polybius - the popular dictatorship led by charismatic demagogue.

[adorno]

No matter how this election goes, Obama can never go back to being a mere senator.

I fear you're correct.

Evita Peron wowed her crowds, and she was a hero to most in her country.

Even to this day, and even after her failed government policies, there are still many who idolize her.

Obama will continue to be a false symbol of hope, win or lose, in the same fashion as Evita.

[houston1]

does the same apply to the crowds Palin draws?

[Excellence]

I don’t think Palin gets up there and promises redemption-through-sacrifice (of your tax dollars) like Obama does.

[gimme1ibertee]

Agreed.Liberals get very distressed when they can’t get every single person in this country to think the way they do. The liberal mind operates like this:They cannot understand why everyone cannot appreciate the massive intellect of the typical liberal.They are underrated and underappreciated,and so misunderstood.They’re owed.They’re entitled. Hubris is the very air they breathe.They are the clarion call of humanity. Thay are the stalwart defender of the little guy.They have all the truth,all the answers and all the solutions. Face it-they’re GOD!
If one could package all that ideology and sell it by the kilo you’d have the ultimate controlled substance-worse than any heroin or crack cocaine.It’s absolutely mind-boggling.It’s Hitler,Jim Jones and the Sunnies all over again,combined-and it’s never been as blatantly clear as it is with this guy 0bama.