In every technical and aesthetic sense Obama's is much better, of course. One begins to see why younger people are more likely to be Obamaniacs than Hillarians: his campaign has an infinitely better grasp of current product-moving idioms. People like what they know, bless 'em.
But it's a little disturbing too. I still have, here at home, a prototype Fasc-O-Meter®, and once I'd changed the batteries and blown the dust out of the cooling fan, it registered a very alarming 58.5 when I pointed it at the Obama video.
The incantatory repetition of a floating-signifier slogan ("yes we can"). Regular folks fervently echoing the Great Leader's phrases. "A president who chose the Moon as our new frontier -- a King who took us to the mountaintop" -- hold everything, I thought Leni Riefenstahl was dead?
Comments (11)
The chief merit of the YWC video is to provide context for this fine piece of work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs
Posted by Jonathan Lundell | February 15, 2008 11:14 PM
Posted on February 15, 2008 23:14
"my vulcan-o-meter
also gives plus 50 readings kiptin"
" he's all logic ...he has no heart jim !!!!"
spock !!!!!
Posted by op | February 16, 2008 6:46 AM
Posted on February 16, 2008 06:46
"Leni Riefenstahl
wazzzz....my girl friend "
Posted by op | February 16, 2008 6:49 AM
Posted on February 16, 2008 06:49
"no no i was wrong
there is a heart a loud heart
but its tin jim
its tin"
"fuck you bones.... he's hung "
Posted by op | February 16, 2008 6:51 AM
Posted on February 16, 2008 06:51
I don't know about Riefenstahl, but this is the same sort of post-modern, cult of personality blather that has been coming out of "progressive" democrats since the Clinton years. And nothing celebrity cult figures Karim Abdul Jabbar or Herbie Hancock can sing or play will do anything to change the essence of what they are promoting. The move to revitalize democracy in the late capitalist world is one that is a self-directed effort, or it's not going to happen at all. And it looks like the usual operatives are getting in the way of what living process there may be functioning beneath all of the Obama hype once again.
Posted by Michael Hureaux | February 16, 2008 4:06 PM
Posted on February 16, 2008 16:06
"late capitalist" ???
wishful thinking ???
Posted by op | February 16, 2008 11:05 PM
Posted on February 16, 2008 23:05
OP, I believe "late capitalist" is a taxonomic, not prognostic, usage in this context.
Posted by Bat Delacourte | February 16, 2008 11:31 PM
Posted on February 16, 2008 23:31
if so
its a spent verbalism
today an obvious misnomer
of trot sponsorship if not origin
to my mind it contains an implicit
world historic time line
not only as an ordering of stages
but as a measure of duration
and relative development
no longer widely regarded as useful
early chuch end time parallels
come to mind
if one insists on time lines and stages
and a false sense of precision
try say somthing like
"stage n capitalism "
--as in the n th stage of m stages---
n =1 -> m
recent or contemporary capitalism
obviously suggests
all that's
in implicaton
arc line neutral
and under its dry husk exterior
retains a hint
of several historic
qualitative morphs past
and future
without appearing to have
an accurate copy of clio's
blueprints in hand
" mature " even has its drawbacks
no ??
Posted by op | February 17, 2008 7:37 AM
Posted on February 17, 2008 07:37
No You Can't
Posted by Craig | February 17, 2008 11:58 AM
Posted on February 17, 2008 11:58
To my way of thinking, it's no worse than "modern" and "post modern". Neither says anything in particular. They carve off chunks in a fairly arbitrary way. The harm in them, or "late capitalist", or any taxonomy, comes from a different place. The alchemical fussifications and willful category errors of rotten agendas lie in the construction, not terminology.
Posted by Bat Delacourte | February 17, 2008 11:20 PM
Posted on February 17, 2008 23:20
I kind of liked that No You Can't video, until i scrolled the side screen and saw that it was done by a bunch of obama supporters.
i found the part about bankers pretty amusing, given the fact that obama is the leading recipient of their campaign largess. given the recent sub prime mortgage scandal, why would anyone want to vote for a guy who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very industry, hell the very FIRMS, that gave birth to that crisis? absolute idiocy...
Posted by Tim D | February 18, 2008 11:23 AM
Posted on February 18, 2008 11:23