Obama’s Election Leads To Societal Trivialization
-By Warner Todd Huston
There is a long human tradition of celebrating the lives of great men by naming buildings and institutions after them. Men that were consequential to their age — or a later one, for that matter — are memorialized by their progeny and held out as the pinnacle of human achievement. Brave, heroic, intelligent, leaders of men, father’s of their people or their field of study, such men are the stuff of legend and societal memory. Memorializing them brings social continuity and gives current generations an ideal model to emulate.
And so, in light of this, we most often wait until someone has actually achieved something before we name a school after them. After all, it’s only fair that we insist that future generations venerate a man that has actually done something exceptional with the end product of their lives, lest the whole exercise seem somewhat hollow.
Sadly, with the coming of Barack Obama, it now seems that hundreds of years of tradition concerning meritorious service has today been unceremoniously cast aside. Apparently, all one need do now for solemn devotion to be lavished upon him is to get elected. A mere election obliviously fosters instant veneration and now presumed excellence can be achieved without all that messy business of having to earn it. Yes, just winning a single election is cause enough to rename schools and streets for Barack Hussein Obama.
Now, I am absolutely not saying that Obama will never deserve this veneration. For all I know standing at one week into his administration, he may end up as one of the greatest of the greats. But as things stand right now, all he did was get elected and that is not enough reason to begin renaming schools and streets in his honor — even temporarily.
It must be remembered that Nixon was successfully elected. So was George W. Bush. In fact, twice each. Are these same sycophantic Obama lovers saying that these two previous presidents achieved as much as Obama? Somehow, I doubt that they would.
To be sure, Obama’s achievement as the first black president is a milestone event. It signifies much about our country; where its been, how far it has come, and where it might now go. But, while that is quite a thing, it does not yet mark Barack Obama as wholly worthy of the instant veneration with which he has been lavished.
There is one other major problem with naming schools after Barack Obama, a public servant not only just starting his life as a young man, but one that has yet to do anything worthy of the honor. There is a second major problem with naming a school after him…
It’s simply unAmerican.
Think about it. We name buildings and schools after men that gave their lives in service to their country. Men that stepped forward, earned their place in history and faded from the scene with the grateful feelings of their countrymen. We in the west have for several hundred years awarded such honors generally to the accomplished.
But, previous to the meritorious era of democracy there was another method of honoring those who stand above us though it wasn’t always because such honorees earned the praise. It was usually because they wielded supreme power. Kings, despots and Pharaohs renamed things for themselves to remind their people of the power they lorded over the commoners. Kings, despots and Pharaohs renamed things for themselves, in their own lifetimes, unbidden by the people. They did this out of a megalomania that we no longer venerate.
No, today, leaders must earn the respect of their fellow countrymen to have such honorifics bestowed upon them. If they do not earn it, the exercise is meaningless, sniggered at, not earned. Just ask William C. Byrd or Ted Stevens.
And that leads us back to how naming a school after Barack Obama is unAmerican. You see, Obama is no Pharaoh, not King and he has not yet earned those honorifics. To give him the honor is premature and undeserved. And no one in America deserves overweening fealty from the people without having done a thing to deserve it.
There may be a day when Barack Obama truly deserves the adulation. But today is not that day. So let’s stop this foolishness or renaming streets and schools after president Obama. Let’s settle back and wait until he actually does something to earn the honor.
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Posted by Warner Todd Huston on January 28, 2009 7:46 am
» Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats, History, Liberal World, News, liberalism
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One Response to “Obama’s Election Leads To Societal Trivialization”
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Unfortunately, this is hardly news. Ever since the 1970’s we have defined everything downward. Passing grades, deviancy, and now “greatness”. The “great men” of the past would stand like titans by comparison to Obama, but look where the bar is now set. I imagine every Obama voter believes that Bono is a “great man”, but is he? In the grand scheme of things, he is a rich rock star who says and does some good things, but on the scale of that which he is able to do by virtue of extraodinary wealth and media access, isn’t it really just about the same as us ordinary types giving our charitable contributions at church? I mean, it’s nice and good and all that, but does it make us “great men”? I doubt it. Obama has not done anything “great”, but America now thinks its movie actors and comedians qualified to opine on matters of foreign policy in the pages of magazines and they are meant by our media to be taken SERIOUSLY! We are meant to take them seriously. Movie actors are called “courageous” while they luxuriate in the hottubs of their private jets! Greatness by acclaim is nothing more than stardom. Obama is a great star, in that sense. But is winning the case of the cheated babysitter, and the chilly tenant really the stuff of greatness? Is spending 100 days on the Senate floor, the raw material of the Presidency? In generations past, the answer would have been a resounding “no!” To the MTV generation, the answer was “who cares? he’s cool!”
In a world where Al Gore is a nobel prize winner, and Jimmy Carter is considered an “ambassador of peace”, how can we discern anymore? The same underlying falsehoods make freedom fighters of terrorists, and terrorists of those who truly fight for freedom.
Too bad we shall soon have need of men of true greatness. What a pity we shall find none in the White House, or leading the Congress. Craven cowards and Communist idealogues have always caused more suffering. We are in for it, this time. Do you think they will insist upon calling what’s left of New York the “Obama memorial nuclear ruins”?