Re: <nettime> Obama and the dawn of the Fourth Republic

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Let me declare bountiful satisfaction that Obama will soon
take office even if he gets whacked before then, metaphorically
or in deed. Pray not another dead Kennedy to erase failure
with hagiography.

It is nonsence that Obama's team will be maintained by the use
of the Internet, if the mailings his campaign sent out are any
indication. Not a single mailing to me had anything more than
a panhandling single-mindedness about sending money. Every
message begged for small change, just like street beggars --
give $5, or 10, anything. The latest offer T-shirts and mugs and 
other Obama doo-dads just like idiot branding advertisers.

And Obama website was about as informative as a jingle.

Come to think of so were his speeches, uplifting for a brief
moment then almost instantly forgettable.

What is impressive is the provision of of his content by the
aspirations of others, here, as elsewhere amongst the vaunted
multitudes. Is this his magic: to let us project onto his blank
(white) screen whatever we most want?

If so, how is the follow-through to be accomplished, how will
we implement our hopes through a governmental system
designed to place power in the hands of a small number of
people and exclude most by far.

The power of the ballot has been forever been dissipated
in deed and overblown in promise. Try to vote in Congress,
try to vote in the cabinet, try to vote in the vast bureaucracy
from top to bottom. Hell even the FOIA is a sham, some
say a deliberate form of drip-drip torture, and for the national
security apparatus a nearly complete shut-out.

Try to vote on the officers of the new administration, umpteen
thousands of them.

And the Obama transition is shaping up to be unprecedentally
inaccessible, all in the name of discipline, for protection against
the opposition, to maintain control, to get it right, and so on,
the usual evasive crapola which if questioned is likely to evolve 
into a form of secrecy even more deeply conceal by vows of
transparency, and, as ever, appeals for trust, declarations
that its best for us.

The ancient religions practiced this chicanery in the
service of the holders of the privileges. Got to keep the
devil out of the chapel.

So here's to Obama the admirable human we voted for, and
to hell with his all-too-elevated presidency. Could be he will
give it a try for 6 months and say this is rotten to the core, no
way to make it work. Call for a dissolution, scare the shit out
of us to not have a scapegoat.

To hell with the other top down systems too.


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