"We Are The Change We've Been Waiting For"

I too noted that David Brooks piece addressed by Ken Blanchard.  Let me start in the same place but go somewhere else. 

Barack Obama had a theory. It was that the voters are tired of the partisan paralysis of the past 20 years. The theory was that if Obama could inspire a grass-roots movement with a new kind of leadership, he could ride it to the White House and end gridlock in Washington.

A cursory look at some of the central documents of our founding show this theory to be at best foolish and at worst deeply dangerous.  In the famous Federalist #10 and again in Federalist #51 James Madison argues that self-interest can't be overcome, so instead it must be channeled to the public good. (A separate question is whether a republic can survive on mere self-interest.)

In Federalist #10 he argues that the seeds of faction have been "sown into human nature."  The solution to faction, i.e., self-interested politics, lies in multiplying the interests in society so that no one interest can attain a majority.  In the clash of interests something approximating justice will derive. 

In #51 he argues not that we should seek to rid politics of ambition, but that we should make "ambition counteract ambition."  At the end of #51 Madison worries about the impatience the public might have with democracy.  Legislation, it has been said, is like sausage: you like the outcome by you don't want to see it made.  Madison worries that the unbecoming nature of the clash of interests that produces legislation will try the people's patience and desire for purity.  They may seek a "will independent of society," a will independent of the clash of interests, to govern them. 

Barack Obama addresses that impatience with self-interest with a demagogic appeal to the people.  What does the solipsism "We are the change we've been waiting for" mean if not that we should indulge ourselves in the notion that what the collective "we" want is good and pure and "we" are only thwarted by the self-interested "they"?  This is similar to the awful "We Are The World" tripe of the 1980s.  What presents itself as a victory over self-interest is really just an appeal to self-indulgence.  Obama's message is a mere palliative, soothing the patient without curing the disease.  Contrast Obama's rhetoric with John McCain's appeal to patriotism and self-sacrifice as a way to over come self-interest.  While McCain has problems of his own on this matter, his is a much more ennobling appeal.  McCain wants you to go beyond your self-interest through service to others; Obama wants you to overcome your self-interest by losing yourself in the mob. 

One may look to the latest hip video produced to bolster Obama's campaign as evidence.  It is almost purely an appeal to passion, particularly with the chanting of "Obama! Obama!" to set the rhythm. Topped off with the Che Guevara-like iconography, the video has the feel of a worship service with Barack Obama as God.  The video puts one to mind of the Fordson Community Singery in Huxley's Brave New World.  Group recitation of bad poetry culminates in the chanting of "Ford! Ford!" and then...Orgy Porgy.  All in the name of building community and breaking down individualism.

The President reached   out his hand; and suddenly a Voice, a deep strong Voice, more musical than any   merely human voice, richer, warmer, more vibrant with love and yearning and   compassion, a wonderful, mysterious, supernatural Voice spoke from above their   heads. Very slowly, "Oh, Ford, Ford, Ford," it said diminishingly and on a   descending scale. A sensation of warmth radiated thrillingly out from the   solar plexus to every extremity of the bodies of those who listened; tears   came into their eyes; their hearts, their bowels seemed to move within them,   as though with an independent life. "Ford!" they were melting, "Ford!"   dissolved, dissolved. Then, in another tone, suddenly, startlingly. "Listen!"   trumpeted the voice. "Listen!" They listened. After a pause, sunk to a   whisper, but a whisper, somehow, more penetrating than the loudest cry. "The   feet of the Greater Being," it went on, and repeated the words: "The feet of   the Greater Being." The whisper almost expired. "The feet of the Greater Being   are on the stairs." And once more there was silence; and the expectancy,   momentarily relaxed, was stretched again, tauter, tauter, almost to the   tearing point. The feet of the Greater Being–oh, they heard them, they heard   them, coming softly down the stairs, coming nearer and nearer down the   invisible stairs. The feet of the Greater Being. And suddenly the tearing   point was reached. Her eyes staring, her lips parted. Morgana Rothschild   sprang to her feet.      

"I hear him," she cried. "I hear him."

One flatters, indulges, and impassions the mob at great peril.  It isn't clear what is more disturbing, if Barack Obama knows exactly what he is doing or if he has no clue.