I'm just back here for a visit but I see many familiar names and faces . . . and a few new ones as well. I've been up to my ears lately in a book project. Still at it. Having trouble with Part Three of "Spinoza's God."
While here, I thought I'd pass along a couple of thoughts I had a month or so ago about Obama's black minister. Am I the only one that sees a similarity between his ranting and the rants of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah? I hope not. It's so apparent I would think that any self-respecting blogster would have sen it right off. (You too, nobull.)
Where the prophet made his living by chewing the asses of the Hebrew people, his modern counterparts (and there are many) earn their keep by lambasting whomever or whatever they see as offensive to their particular mindset. The OT guy claimed to be repeating words God told him to say, and I suppose that worked fairly well in his day. No modern prophet -- unless it be a Hagee type -- would ever claim such guidance while expecting to be taken seriously.
The line preached by Jeremiah Wright was adapted from the so-called Liberation Theology preached in South America some 60 years ago by wall-jumping Catholic priests who felt their church had unfairly -- and for centuries -- made common cause with plutocrats. Preacher Wright has just been a bit slow to catch on to the fact that, as Conrad wrote of "Mistah Kurtz," "his methods are unsound." (Liberation Theology didn't work in Brazil either.)
I have no defensible idea explaining why a smart young fellow like Barack Obama didn't see the futility of Wright's pleadings at least 19 years ago. (I'll give him the first year to take in enough of the message to see it's shortcomings.) Perhaps the ideas Rev. Wright was preaching appealed to him. Not the vituperative language per se but the idea that mainstream America was still a racist society. In my opinion, that was a fact, and still is. But Obama should have recognized that Wright's head-long assault on the ramparts was not gonna get the job done. As the Buddha said, nothing succeeds so well at creating resistance as does resistance. I can't imagine any red-blooded American reacting favorably to the message Wright was delivering.
But then, he wasn't speaking to mainstream America. He was speaking to a black audience in Chicago, and the people in that audience were no doubt sucking up his "plain talk" like thirsty camels at a watering hole. I can understand that, but, as I say, I don't understand why a superior mind like Obama's was swallowing the same invective. He should have known better.
So far, he has not to my satisfaction explained his remaining so long under Wright's spell. I've heard several times his great Philadelphia speech, but in it he did more to explain Wright than he did to explain himself. Maybe after the blitz of the campaign is over and he's safely ensconced in the Oval Office, he'll make a better case for his mistake. In the meanwhile . . .
I stand behind my endorsement of Barack Obama. Now that we know who his Republican opponent is to be, I am even more convinced that the nation needs Barack Obama for President. McCain, as courageous as he might have been 40 years ago, is today equally as devoid of common sense as is the current occupant of the White House. McCain claims not to understand economics, but I suspect he actually understands nothing quite so well as does your average college sophomore. I won't say that he's ignorant, but I will say that his mind is not geared to ask the hard questions of the flock of advisors that will be showering him with bright ideas designed to save the world from the "Islamofascists" . . . so it can remain safely in the arms of the corporate fascists where it has been ever since Ronald Reagan gift wrapped it for them.
I don't mean by this that Obama will solve all the problems Herr Bush has left on the plate of the next administration. I do mean that he has a far better chance of straightening out the mess than John McCain has.
And as my cousin Forest Gump used to say (before he got stranded on that island) "That's all I have to say about that."
8 comments on Wright is a "Jeremiah"
Add a comment
To add comments without entering your email and image verification, you must be logged in. Login or Join Blogster
yeh, I recently learned more about Obama - he's not sOOO bad, as long as he actually means what he says. But do any of them??? *sigh*
Ps. check your email!
Unfortunately, we have to choose between (or among) the choices available, even if they are all liars.
Thanks Volt. I'll try to visit often.
"rev." wright is a blood hungry racist and ODUMBA is is son !!!!
But Joe, it's common knowledge that Jeremiah Wright is Barack Obama's father. At least, in some circles. My fictitious cousin Harold has it the other way. He thinks Wright is Obama's son . . . but you can't believe that lying Harold. He'll say anything to get attention.
Living down here on the south side of Chicago and having had a lifetime of close contact with the ghetto experience I find myself now in between your lofty intellectual world and Joe's desperate reality crisis.
You know I am reluctant to say this at the risk of sounding superior but when it comes to the right Rev. Wright, Mr Obama and the ghetto religious experience you simply are not capable of relating. There are no fine Spinozan distinctions down here. There are hardly even the moral imperatives that you might recall from your own religious background. What we have down here is an entertainment medium, a stress reliever and a dispensing of hope and government cash.
As for the comparison of Wright to any prophet: What do you think is the point of fire and brimstone sermonizing? The point is to appear to be a prophet. No great truths are to be found in Wright's rages. He doesn't even believe them himself. He rages because that is what draws his followers. Any ghetto preacher would tell you the same.
I don't understand either why you refer to Obama's intellectual credentials in such superlative terms. What is your basis for thinking him so brilliant? I don't think he's stupid but I would wait for a whole lot more evidence before I apply any measurement in that department. I don't take the fact that he sat through racist barrages from the pulpit for 20 years as a particularly negative sign of his intelligence either. I believe he was there as a student. As someone smart enough to see that there was a source of undeveloped political power wiating to be mined from ghetto style preaching. Is that brilliant? Maybe. But it is certainly true and it is certainly opportunistic.
Good points, Nobull. My impression of Obama as a man with a superior mind is based on hie Harvard law experience (President of the Law Review) and a few of the things I have heard him say. He is hardly a C-student. (I was writing a letter to local paper when blogster showed up announcing your presence. It says essentially that I have nothing but admiration for McCain but that I do not believe the nation can stand four more years of be ing governed by a C-student. I'll sign it, "Old working class white guy for Obama.")
About the credentials of a "prophet" . . . are you making a case for the possibility that the OT "prophets" were merely trying to be seen as prophets? I'd go along with that . . . and put the Reverend Wright in the same category.
As for my ghetto experience . . . well, I ain't got none first hand, but I am perhaps the one and only white guy you've encountered who was singled out by the KKK for a night time march. Ask me about that sometime. I ain't gonna blog it because I'm now too old to want the kind of trouble the local chapter of the KKK (aka "The Madison County Republican Party") might bring to my doorstep.
Good comments.