The emperor Obama's new campaign

I've been hearing about the evils of the American Empire my whole life. The funny thing is, the more we emphasize the evils of America, the faster we seem to be heading toward actually being as bad as we've been saying it is. Especially in a country devoid of fundamental principles and world views. This is not something that is Right or Left of course. But it is seen more keenly on the Left, where traditional religious and philosophical grounding for one's outlook on life has been replaced by a narcissistic emphasis on the imperial, autonomous ME.

Now in terms of religion, theism as it is, we've always been taught that humans have an innate 'God Space' in their hearts. Humans will worship something. So when atheists insist that Communism was treated like religion, and that's why it was evil, it easy to believe. In the absence of God, people will worship.

And this sort of cultic worship of a human or thing is more, shall we say, obvious among the Left than Right. Again, to emphasize, it can easily happen on the Right. But it is more common today, and more flagrant on the Left. For the Left has long abandoned the notion of God, religion, or worship in the traditional sense. Even liberal religious leaders subscribe to a watered down, self-focused narcissistic spirituality that more or less focuses on me, me, and me. Hence, that desire to worship something is left wanting. And so in walks Obama, who for political expediency will naturally want to encourage a certain devotion from his base. That's not uncommon. But since he is pandering to a grouping already devoid of serious objects of worship, he is able - with a straight face - to do what even mockeries of political personality cults wouldn't have thought of 20 years ago. Thus:

Yes, you saw it right. This is not unlike the fascists states of Europe, or the Communist states, or the Roman Empire, or any other movement based upon total fealty and loyalty to a person. It isn't even uncommon when nations believe their existence is in jeopardy, and all are called to sacrifice, as in the US during WWII. In this case, however, the great cause is Obama.

It isn't a big thing in itself. But it speaks volumes. Had any politician said such a thing 30 years ago, he would have been laughed off the stage. But Obama says it with a straight face and an outstretched hand: give everything you own to The One. You may be starting life in a crappy economy, where the average worker makes barely more than a grocery bagger would have in 1985 (assuming inflation), but whatever you thought you should get in order to start life, should be handed over to the Worthy Cause: Obama. If you read this, and start thinking of this little tune from Veggie Tales:



Then that's good. Especially if you replace the word 'bunny' with 'Obama.' It shows that somewhere, not too far beneath the surface of logic, you detect something has gone seriously wrong in our culture. That we will end up worshipping something. A return to the God worth worshipping probably isn't a bad idea, given that we see that people will worship something or someone in lieu of God. We'll see how it works out.

Oh, and don't for a minute this only counts for non-Christians on the Left.  Christians, too, have been known to throw in with the latest, hippest. Especially when they reduce their faith to an abstract existentialist concept by which we measure our pain (St. John Lennon 3:16). One of the ironies of history is that when Christians abandon their sense to follow the most recent demand on their loyalty, if that demand turns out to be something horrible (I'm thinking Nazis here), the Christians are justly condemned for having done so.  Of course, the ones condemning them are as likely as not insisting that Christians today abandon their traditional beliefs to conform to today's latest, hippest.  But that's for another post.