The politics of crisis has worn thin. On the left, the sound of alarm focuses on planetary peril. Those on the right prattle on about Islamo-fascism. The media eats it all up, addicted as they are to the ratings surge that comes from exciting the amgdyla gland and suppressing all activity in the frontal lobes. The sounds - no matter how well intentioned, rational or fact-based - have become like car alarms that have gone off so frequently as to be anything but alarming.
For this I tip my hat to Barack Obama. He seems to have picked up on how wearisome it is to have politicians treat us like children in a haunted house who, if sufficiently frightened, will cling even to them. The Politics of Hope certainly sounds like a clean alterative to the normal noise from those who wrestle to seize the reigns from fate.
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You might like this cartoon: LINK
(Like most BtAFs, it starts out great then wanders around until it's over. But you'll like the first two panels.)
Obama is clever. Instead of running around and crying the "sky is falling" he is urging us all to step out from our bunkers. There's something attractive about active politicking versus a sort of passive panic. But I fear that as this election thing draws closer his thoughtful message will be lost in the din of chicken clucking. Time will tell.
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