Sunday, August 10, 2008

Shamobama: Obama as Shaman….



“Sen. Barack Obama is charismatic. The carefully knotted ties and the dark, conservatively tailored suits only accentuate the exoticness of his shamanism; he has entered the American psyche not as a hero but as a healer.” (Michael Knox Beran; WSJ City Journal 7/30/0

Much is made of the appellation “empty suit” when referring to Barack Obama. Although the “suit” is nearly empty when it comes to governance experience and legislative accomplishments the “suit” is full of nostrums, even panaceas for our national ills. In the above mentioned essay Beran notes:

“The country, or much of it, has longed for such a figure, a man from the once-oppressed race whose rise to power will atone for the sins of slavery and racial stigmatization. But Mr. Obama’s rhetoric encompasses more than a promise of racial healing. He is not the first politician to argue that politics can redeem us, but in posing as the Adonis who will turn winter into spring, he revives one of the more pernicious political swindles: the belief that a charismatic leader can ordain a civic happy hour and give a people a sense of community that will make them feel less bad…

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