Among the Intellectualoids
The Department of Early Indoctrination
Obama devotees create a mythology for themselves — and toddlers.
(Page 2 of 4)
The Call to Adventure
Son of Promise tells us of Barry’s adventures in the “wonderland” of Indonesia, where he “caught crickets, flew kites, and joyed in the jungle at the edge of his new home — a perfect paradise until the sight of beggars broke his heart.” Like Perseus, Jason and every last Argonaut before him, child Obama glimpses his own righteous destiny in this unremarkable experience: “Barry started to wonder, Will I ever be able to help people like these? Hope hummed deep inside of him. Someday, son. Someday.”
Reports that one of these captured crickets was, in fact, Jiminy of the infamous Gryllidae family remain unsubstantiated.
Refusal of the Call
Here, for fairly obvious reasons, neither author goes into pot, booze, or “maybe a little blow when you could afford it,” even if, “not smack, though,” might be a worthwhile message for today’s whippersnappers who aspire to master the ocean tides.
Supernatural Aid
The capitalized, personified Hope in Son of Promise may have only “hummed deep inside” Obama in Indonesia, but it becomes more vocal:
When Barack wasn’t studying he liked to jog along the Hudson River. He couldn’t help but notice the river of hurt and hate and history that separated blacks and whites. Being both, he could not take sides. Don’t worry, said Hope. I will be your bridge. In time you will be the bridge for others.
That’s right, kids, delusions of grandeur are totally cool if the voices in your head sign off on them. (Also, don’t let anyone tell you jogging alongside a river of hurt and hate and history isn’t a relaxing and invigorating study break…?) So, where does one go to learn to be a bridge? Why, Trinity Church in Chicago, of course. Grimes, again:
When his classes came to an end, he raced to Chicago to join hands with the church, to learn new lessons: Not how to be black or white, but how to be a healer, how to change things, how to make a difference in the world.
Other lessons under the venerable Rev. Wright: The “United States of KKK” invention of AIDS “as a means of genocide against people of color”; Bill Clinton “Riding Dirty,” i.e. doing blacks “just like he did Monica Lewinsky”; and Racism 101—”how this country was founded and how this country is still run.” None of these topics made the kiddie-book cut, but you can imagine how tough this stuff would be to illustrate for four year-olds.
BARACK also has a page devoted to Trinity:
[T]here, swept up in the waves of their singing, with tears on his cheeks, [Obama] knew why he was there. He knew who he was and he knew where he belonged.
Right, right: He was there for political capital and street cred, and he belonged there until it became a drag on his presidential campaign. Talking prescient Indonesian cricket or no, Barack knows these things.
The Crossing of the First Threshold
About the Author
Shawn Macomber is a contributing editor to The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (14) | Leave a comment
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William Lannon| 10.27.08 @ 8:23AM
A masterful skewering of the unseemly pretensions of the Obama cult.
joecool| 10.27.08 @ 1:52PM
Wow. It is something of which I knew of my subconscious, but your article brought it to the forefront of my brain.
Indoctrinators wax poetic. Ugh.
Maddie| 10.27.08 @ 2:44PM
» Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
gregorbo| 10.27.08 @ 2:58PM
The Second Coming (W.B. Yeats)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
skatz51| 10.27.08 @ 3:59PM
OMG! I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Emily0717| 10.27.08 @ 4:11PM
Our country is suffering a collective nervous breakdown. Many are going to feel really stupid when they finally see the truth.
Denise| 10.27.08 @ 5:41PM
Not everyone will fall for the "messiah" characterization. Christians bristle at that. But with literature like this, even they are one small step away from having the real messiah supplanted with the Dear Leader. It won't take long.
Emily, you're right about the collective nervous breakdown...I predict a colossal rise in prescriptions of antidepressants over the coming months if Obama loses.
But they'll find a way to blame that on George Bush, too.
Diane Smith| 10.28.08 @ 2:06AM
Denise, your comment about anti-depressants and tranquilizers brought back memories of John Kerry's surprise defeat. For months here in the Bay Area, we had articles about the surge in psychiatric visits by Democrats in Deep Despair.
Wendy Watkins| 10.28.08 @ 3:26AM
This article describes my thoughts as well. People are mesmerized by Obama and non of them question his tactics, his far left ideology, or his inexperience. It's pretty scary.
Nikki Grimes happens to be a wonderful person. She's a friend of mine. But friends can agree to disagree.
frank burns| 10.28.08 @ 9:42AM
"Dear Leader" indeed - this would all be quite funny if it weren't so serious. Deifying a hack Chicago racist pol along the lines of MLK, indoctrinating kids into little knee-bending commies; makes me sick. In fact, I'm thinking of writing one of my own - OBAMA, THE IPECAC - (as in syrup of ipecac).
catherine| 10.28.08 @ 1:10PM
Write it will you can, before BO's truth squads are knocking on your door.
Ms. Know| 10.30.08 @ 12:21AM
A lot of our country is going to be upset when their liberal illuminati politicians, that they feel are saints, let them down.