Friends and commenters JeffS and Arts & Ammo sent links to this lengthy think piece by David Samuels: "How Barack Obama Built an Omnipotent thought Machine, and How It Was Destroyed". It's an interesting look into a massive PSYOP/propaganda effort which the author of the article attributes primarily to David Axelrod. It is well worth a read, although some observers have voiced varying degrees of disagreement with certain aspects of its underlying assumptions and conclusions, including the blogger who goes by the handle "NEO": "Obama’s 'permission structures' seem to have gone awry".
In any event, Obama's rise, and lingering grasp on politics, is a cautionary tale that underscores the truth of something the American literary critic Lionel Trilling wrote long ago: "We have a moral obligation to be intelligent." Especially when it comes to politics, we the people need constantly to observe, assess and, ultimately, judge based on the use of our own reason, not based on the opinions of "experts" who frequently are nothing but especially glib partisans.
The very worst thing that can happen to Barack Obama is for the country to ignore him. It seems like the Dems may be on that road, since they’re finally facing up to the damage he did to their party.
ReplyDeletethat's lengthy indeed and I agree that it's partly correct, I think it's cancel culture and shaming that were the operating principles rather than permission structure, the 'smart set' didn't need permission to vote for a 'clean, articulate black man' as much they needed him to be on the ballot so that they could virtue signal by voting for him and shame the people who weren't enlightened enough to vote for him... remember you're a racist if you don't/didn't vote for him... Trump's election and somewhat successful administration showed some of the lies associated with Obama, then the 'fortified' election and failure of the Biden administration showed what the third Obama term would be like and how much more lies, canceling and shaming would go with enhanced lawfare as an enhanced punishment feature, but then it was just too obvious.
ReplyDeleteNeo makes several good points, but I suspect that Axelrod's "permission structures" strategy was broader than what David Samuels postulates. Or at least was one tool in the tool box. Any well structured campaign plan will have multiple parts to the strategy, and tactics have to be flexible.
ReplyDeleteExample: An friend of mine was stationed in Chicago while Obama was the US senator, and he described an event where Obama spoke to a high school assembly. At that event, Obama flat out stated that he was there to speak to the black males, and no one else. Not the black females, nor any other ethnic group. And that's just what Obama did, thereby insulting everyone else.
That's flat out racism and misogyny, hardly any "permission structure". It certainly set my friend's mind as to the evil nature of that creature.
I've no doubt that many people were brainwashed (an overused term, but apt here) into white guilt. But not everyone is gullible, and old fashioned Chicago politics were definitely on the table, locally and nationally. God knows that anyone with their eyes open saw that often enough.
I think the Tablet article really paints a bigger picture of the organization behind Obama's rise to power, and offers at least a partial description of how he is becoming irrelevant. Thank God!