the cult of obama - martin luther king with a nuclear arsenal - is going to get real old real fast. the images hanging all over my college campus, for example, might as well be mao or saddam: they give you the whole cult-of-personality totalitarian flavor. the average american liberal would believe or do anything he says. the people with whom i watched the inaugural address - well, the women, anyway - were literally gasping and groaning in ecstasy: the exquisite agony of perfect submission. you know we wondered whether under bush/cheney we were heading toward a totalitarian regime. we better keep on wondering, especially as the power of the state doubles each month in the face of depression.
i particularly like the image on top, now reproduced in many forms: gazing vaguely upward at the limitless future: a conventional pose of the Beloved Leader. of course the shepard fairey image is utterly ubiquitous: explicitly throwing down some socialist realism traditionalism. when you start seeing them on billboards and on the sides of buildings, on banners and televised messages, start digging out the shelter in your back yard.
Astute and accurate observations Chrispy. But what happened to Hitler? The savior is our Hero. Meet the new Boss.....The fact remains that we are living in a police state under a fascist government. The rule of Law has been Quashed by Men of money and power. Women of money and power. Gender only serves as a partisian site for arguments sake. If Obama achieves anything like Justice it will be a miracle. Our leaders are in a poor position to do anything for US. It will get worse before it gets better and WE will have to accept responsibility as a nation.
Posted by: Rik Little | January 24, 2009 at 03:34 PM
It's a little harder to get a fascist personality cult going with a moderate liberal.
Posted by: substitute | January 24, 2009 at 08:10 PM
Uncle Sam Wants You!
what is a nation?
Posted by: mr.fun | January 25, 2009 at 11:13 AM
MLK with a nuclear arsenal, nice. It's true of our emperor, he would "harness the power of the sun!"
Posted by: Bracken | January 25, 2009 at 06:37 PM
...cult of personality?!?where you get that Rush?Fox news?Hannity?Oh,yeah....
...the cult of personality gods,because that is all these wind bags are.People like you follow their every word and then blindly-like sheep-'qoute what they tell you to say'.
That is why we had Bush & co.thake away all of our rights to steal us blind,and people like you basically call Obama-our president,by the way-the 'N' word.
Fox news,home of the KKK...you decide...
Posted by: thedrew | January 29, 2009 at 04:43 AM
we have a winner! dingdingding.
Posted by: mr.fun | January 29, 2009 at 08:07 AM
awesome visuals!
@MrFun: FOXNews? Rush?
Try Krugman in the NYT...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=2&oref=slogin
or (NPR's left spokesman) E. J. Dionne...
http://www.heraldnews.com/opinions/x1529763971
besides which, even if the idea came from Weekly Standard, would that make it incorrect? (genetic fallacy)
Posted by: Ockraz | February 19, 2009 at 05:32 AM