Old Gadfly: What is it, IM?
IM: This morning, I watched President Obama’s
press conference about the impact of sequestration. Of course, listening to his speech while
observing the fire fighters standing behind him seemed to overwhelm my consciousness
with strange signals.
Old Gadfly: I had the broadcast on in the background, watched
the same theatrical display, and immediately thought: this is another “teaching
moment.”
IM: What do you mean?
Old Gadfly: Do you remember the rare Obama press
conference when he actually entertained a question from the press corps, and
the question that caught him off guard involved the Cambridge Massachusetts
police officer that confronted the black Harvard professor attempting to break
into his own home? Do you remember how
Obama responded?
IM: Yes. He
said the Cambridge police “acted stupidly.”
He also, added, “that
it is ‘just a fact’ that African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately
stopped by police—evidence ‘that race remains a factor in our society.’”
Old Gadfly: That is correct and it generated a lot of
reaction from the public. A Google
search produced almost 10
million articles, blog entries, and so forth. For damage control, it was inconceivable that
Obama would admit that he made a mistake, and really did “act stupidly”; thus, it was
time for a teaching moment at a picnic table on the White House property over a
glass of beer and in full view of photographers. A complicit media collaborated in portraying
a touching scene of the all-knowing one
descending down to the ordinary man level, to lecture those (which does not include the Harvard professor) who actually live
a life full of risk, cost, and consequence.
In
his book Intellectuals and Society, Thomas
Sowell provides a powerful description of people like Obama, intellectuals who
are full of ideas without risk, cost, or consequence. Obama’s trip to Florida was at no personal cost
to play golf with Tiger Woods. Ironically, both suffer from a character flaw called fidelity--Woods with his former wife and Obama with the people he serves (see Honeymoon Tonight, Marriage Tomorrow?). And, far
more importantly, Obama’s role in setting the conditions (i.e., the result of
debt ceiling negotiations) for what we call sequestration was a tremendous risk
to others (especially those who will lose jobs) and at a tremendous cost to
others (especially those who actually pay taxes), which will be very consequential.
IM: This may explain why I felt overwhelmed by
signals.
Old Gadfly: How would you describe the signals?
IM: One signal was the nameless fire fighters
coopted into the visual frame. Fire
fighters provide safety from harm for nameless and faceless people. So, the subliminal message is that Obama
wants to keep the public safe. The other
signal was the theme of Obama’s speech--to blame others, especially the
Republicans and the top 1% that has not paid its fair share, for getting us to
this point and for not getting us out of it.
In other words, he used this speech as an opportunity for a “teaching
moment.” In the process, he threw out a
bunch of ideas, knowing he had absolutely no risk of incurring cost, that is,
political capital, or consequences. There
is no risk of consequences for Obama because, when conditions get progressively
worse, Obama, Democrats, and the remaining intellectual class (i.e., journalists,
the Hollywood cohort, and academics) will blame Republicans for the cost and
consequences that burden primarily taxpayers and secondarily, trickle down
consequences through reduced subsidies to, non-taxpayers.
Old Gadfly: Obama’s teaching should only resonate with Copernican
drones.
IM: My concern is that, even considering George
Soros’ intellectual concept of an Open
Society, these Copernican drones and those who are susceptible to joining their
class are offered little in terms of alternative teaching. All they get now are the intellectual ideas
associated with hope and change.
Old Gadfly: There’s another subliminal signal here, IM: The Animal
Farm pigs have successfully protested and now conspicuously walk on their
hind legs.
