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School address and the Cult of Personality
Sep. 4th, 2009 09:56 pmMany folks are genuinely puzzled by the Right's explosion about the Obama address to children on September 8. Perhaps I can interpret:
When news of this first leaked out, we heard about the accompanying curriculum guides: "Write down three ways you can help the President." (I paraphrase).
Then we went to the department of education website and saw a logo for this initiative that picks up the graphic themes of the Obama For President campaign.
Obama's speech may be 15 minutes of "do your homework" bromides. And that's fine. And there are worse things than our country's first African American president saying to a generation of African American children, without actually saying the words, "You can achieve anything you set your mind to." After all, Obama set his mind to being president of the United State and there he sits in the Oval Office. That's a good pride-making lesson.
No. It's not that that's making the hairs on the backs of our collective necks rise. It's the apparatus that goes with it. The creepazoid Cult of Personality apparatus. The perennial campaign. The "what can you do to help Obama?" curriculum guide.
I don't want any kid helping Obama, or helping *any* President, achieve his agenda. The president puts his pants on one leg at a time, same as I do. Let the kids help their communities or their country. But spare us the "how can we help Our Leader" stuff. We really really don't need that. It's a very slippery slope, that trip from "pride in Obama" to Dear Leader.
Not putting this under any cut tag. Folks need to think about this.
EDIT: Someone ought to tell Obama's PR folks and especially his New Media folks to be careful about how they're "helping him." If I were Obama, I might be saying, like Max Bialystock to those Little Old Ladies in the courtroom scene: "Please. Don't help me."
When news of this first leaked out, we heard about the accompanying curriculum guides: "Write down three ways you can help the President." (I paraphrase).
Then we went to the department of education website and saw a logo for this initiative that picks up the graphic themes of the Obama For President campaign.
Obama's speech may be 15 minutes of "do your homework" bromides. And that's fine. And there are worse things than our country's first African American president saying to a generation of African American children, without actually saying the words, "You can achieve anything you set your mind to." After all, Obama set his mind to being president of the United State and there he sits in the Oval Office. That's a good pride-making lesson.
No. It's not that that's making the hairs on the backs of our collective necks rise. It's the apparatus that goes with it. The creepazoid Cult of Personality apparatus. The perennial campaign. The "what can you do to help Obama?" curriculum guide.
I don't want any kid helping Obama, or helping *any* President, achieve his agenda. The president puts his pants on one leg at a time, same as I do. Let the kids help their communities or their country. But spare us the "how can we help Our Leader" stuff. We really really don't need that. It's a very slippery slope, that trip from "pride in Obama" to Dear Leader.
Not putting this under any cut tag. Folks need to think about this.
EDIT: Someone ought to tell Obama's PR folks and especially his New Media folks to be careful about how they're "helping him." If I were Obama, I might be saying, like Max Bialystock to those Little Old Ladies in the courtroom scene: "Please. Don't help me."
