Deconstructing the Obamanon = Deconstructing Hope

[althecat]

Here's something from one of our regular columnists here at Scoop that DU may be interested in...

Meditations - From Martin LeFevre in California

Deconstructing the Obamanon

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0801/S00039.htm

There’s a lot of talk about hope going around after Barack Obama’s win in Iowa. If Obama wins in New Hampshire on Tuesday, he said, “I’ll be the next president of the United States.” Hillary, standing next to a devastated Bill, warned voters not to build up “false hopes” by choosing an inexperienced candidate.

Having studied Derrida in grad school, the only thing I remember about it is how no one understands deconstruction. Despite, or because of that fact, a lot of people throw the word around. Nevertheless, at the risk of being clear, let’s deconstruct hope.

To understand why Americans are so infatuated with a blank message of hope, one has to keep two facts in mind. First, how despairing the majority of people are about the conditions in this country; and second, how soaring rhetoric with the cadences of gospel music and black history stir emotions that people desperately want to feel again. But there is something more than that going on here.

As a CNN commentator put it: “In Iowa Americans may have taken the first tiny steps to taking this country back.”

Hope can be a healthy emotional orientation, the needle on the compass of believing that things can be better. ‘False hope’ is investing that feeling in a person or thing that has no chance of delivering the desired result, which is what Hillary is accusing Obama.

More...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0801/S00039.htm

[Teaser]

1. Nobody "studies Derrida."

In Russia, Derrida studies you!

[Rageneau]

2. Hope. Change. Bunny Rabbits. Kittens. Ribbons. Sparklers, and Obama.

Everything is going to be so nice.

[althecat]

3. I hope so

:bounce:

[killbotfactory]

4. If you want to know why she loses the youth vote

her "false hopes" line should be a good indicator. We've had eight years of Bush where nearly everything has gotten worse. We are facing huge problems, and playing it safe just doesn't cut it. She comes off like an overbearing parent who doesn't want their child to grow up into an adult. One who keeps trying to steer their kid into being an accountant when they want to be a poet.