[Pen-l] The Obama cult

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Recently I have noticed an interesting but disturbing phenomenon in 
New York City. On the streets, subways and buses, you can see people 
still wearing Barack Obama buttons even though the election is long 
over. I wonder to myself whether these buttons express an inchoate 
political/psychological yearning. In some ways it reminds me of how 
people wore pictures of the fifteen year old guru Maharaj-ji, who 
counted former 60s radical Rennie Davis as one of his main followers.

When I spoke to a fellow radical in my department at Columbia 
University about my concerns, his eyes lit up and he said:

"I know exactly what you mean. There's this guy in my health club who 
wears an 'Obama Knows' t-shirt. The other day I went up to him and 
asked him, 'Knows what?' He really couldn't answer me."

At some point I will ask one of these Obama button wearers the same 
kind of question. What's up with the Obama button? What are you 
trying to say? I once asked someone wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt the 
same kind of question. Trust me; they did not decide to wear the 
t-shirt after reading "Socialism and Man in Cuba".

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/the-obama-cult/

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