Date posted: May 21, 2008 - Wednesday
Title: The Messiah Syndrome
Current mood: contemplative
I have thought a lot about what is driving the overwhelming commitment to the Obama campaign. Yes, he is a dynamic speaker and presents some attractive ideas to the electorate, but that doesn't seem to explain the level of support not only within the party but from the media.
I kept turning it over and over in my mind and finally something occurred to me.
I think it is a combination of things that have evolved in our political structure and in the current state of the country. Circumstances have combined to create a situation I think could be described as The Messiah Syndrome.
Not to get caught up in the religious overtones of the word, the secondary definition of Messiah is "a professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause." This is how the Obama phenomenon can be explained and understood.
We are a representative democracy. Each citizen has a vote, but not a direct voice in the manner in which government is conducted. We must depend on elected representatives to look out for our interests and be our voice in determining how we are governed. Thus elected officials are granted a fair amount of power over our lives and assume a position of leadership.
Over the last 20 or 30 years the lives of the average American have grown more and more complex. Where our grandparents and great grand parents could expect to live their lives in the same place, work at the same job and control most aspects of those lives, we today don't have those expectations. A person in America today can expect to have five to seven different careers and he or she is at the mercy of corporate takeovers, economic downturns and the whims of others.
We are, for the most part, an aware people. Despite a media which can ill-serve us at times, most Americans know about and have a basic understanding of the problems we currently face. We know there are solutions to these things, but as individuals we know we can't effect those solutions. And so, again, we are dependant upon the elected representatives to implement them.
Unfortunately, we are also a nation of individuals looking for an easy way out. It can be blamed on a number of things. Television which makes us expect a solution to anything in an hour. A hectic pace to life that leaves us little time to relax or do a lot of serious thinking. A culture that rewards the glib and the facile instead of the intellect. All this adds up to a nation looking for a quick solution, a ready solution and a leader who will do the work for us.
Enter Barack Obama.
The theme of his campaign has been the concept of unifying us, of bringing us together to solve the problems we face. And it is a message that resonates with people who are seeking solutions and feel individually powerless. They are looking for someone to lead
People still want to believe things will get better, to believe there is someone out there who has the answers and is willing to undertake the task of putting those answers into practice. They will grasp his candidacy as an easy solution.
And beyond the common voter, the media has all but anointed him as the Democratic candidate and the next president. Where the media was once content to merely report the news, it now sees its' role as interpretive (especially television news). There is an effort to provide reasons or guidance and relieve the viewer of the necessity to spend the time reaching a conclusion of his own.
The problem with accepting the Messiah Syndrome is it is an abdication of individual responsibility. Yes, the individual has made a decision, but it is a decision to put his future into the hands of another instead of his own.
And this is our shame today. We have, for the most part and for numerous reasons, abdicated the responsibility for our own lives. We too easily accept the concept we can do nothing ourselves and so surrender to the politician who tells us he has the solutions to all our problems and will take care of us.
