QUESTION ASKED: Is the cult of Obama finally over? At the O2 Arena in London, the president sounded exasperated. His worldview had lost.
For people like Fran who wanted answers, Obama gave none. He just seemed depressed. He said that Britain, like America, is at a “fork in the road.” He said that we’re too materialistic, and have lost two historic defenses against consumerism: religion and counterculture. (Hip-hop used to have a purpose, now rappers just talk about money.) He said there was a “significant risk” that AI becomes a tool of oppression and censorship, and said that Donald Trump has committed “violence against the truth.” “Old men hanging on who are afraid of death” cause 80 percent of the world’s problems, he told the audience, with exasperated frankness. His world view had lost.
After an hour-and-a-bit he was done. [British historian David Olusoga] said “Mr President, thank you for your leadership,” and Obama smiled, waved and left. People ran for the doors. To get the train home, to rush to their friends and loved ones, to proclaim that their king was dead.
In 2013, Ace of Spades wrote of “The MacGuffinization of American Politics:”
American politics is now merely a MacGuffin, an important-sounding but ultimately inconsequential and disposable plot device for holding interest in the Hero’s Journey.
Ultimately the only thing that matters is the Hero itself. It doesn’t matter why the Hero Barack Obama wants the Lost Ark of Sensible Gun Control, or the Shankara Stones of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, or the Democratic Holy Grail of Affordable Health Care. These are very minor details and only matter to the extent the Hero exerts himself to achieve them.
The viewers of this film don’t really care about these things, but only Obama’s frustration at being denied them, or his joy in attaining them.
“This is a big f***ing deal,” his incompetent Comic Sidekick said as he signed Obamacare into law. What the “this” was didn’t matter then, as it scarcely matters now.
What counted was that the Hero had won.
Politics is now a MacGuffin in American politics, at least for the frothing fanbois of the Hero Barack Obama.
It doesn’t matter what his goals actually are — it only matters that he succeeds in those quests, whatever they might be.
Chris Matthews sums up, neatly, his only genuine interest in American politics for the past five years:
“We have real people in this country with real power and status who have used that status of power to hurt the country so they could hurt the president.“
Great moments in projection, considering what Chris’s fellow Democrats would be hurling non-stop at Obama’s successor, just three years later.