Ugh

I'm watching the Obama acceptance speech. I'm am convinced beyond any doubt that anybody will accept anything as long as it's in a nice package.

He said something about those who didn't vote for him: "I hear your voices." I'm not sure I can articulate my disappointment in our culture. The only voices he's heard are those of his handlers. He doesn't give a damn about America or for anyone outside of his immediate family. For the record, I don't think McCain does either. But as I'm watching this, the cameras are focusing in on the crowd. Each shot is a mix of black and white with tears in their eyes or a look of awe on their faces as if they were extras in Close Encounters during the landing scene. It feels contrived as if a producer is making sure to frame each shot in such a way they have looped footage for days.

I don't see hope or change. I see a savvy politician who was a better fund raiser than George Bush run a campaign that tugged on heartstrings like John Edwards in front of a jury. His entire speech is filled with sugar-pill sound bites. I will admit that lofty rhetoric is what is expected at a speech like this, but to me his speech is just another stop on the same road. The prospect of his inexperience ignored because he's so dreamy has ushered in the era of the manufactured candidate.

Obama represents the generation of celebrity, similar to Paris Hilton or Julia Allison: he's famous because he's famous. He is now President because he is famous for being famous. How very meta. His handlers took a guy with a far left ideology, but no experience and very few skeletons, and reinvented him to be the perfect candidate.

I guess this has been coming for a while in bits. Marketing and advertising and public relations have saturated our culture into thinking each person is a brand. Now we have an election that was based entirely on minute-by-minute spin. Will Obama lead our country based on the latest polling data? Of course. His job for the next four years is to keep his job for another four years.

The worst part about this election is lack of control or input I feel. I never would have picked either candidate. In fact, both parties suck and if they aren't force-feeding the public pre-determined, over-analyzed, over-think, they are punishing nonconformists who somehow made it into office. I'm pretty sure it's just me since tens-of-thousands of people in Chicago are welcoming our new manufactured overlord, but I feel like a real outsider. I think I'd feel the same way with McCain, but less because at least he has some sort of record. Maybe I realized this year how pointless this stuff really is. The reality is so far removed from the discourse it's actually making French philosophers appear to be onto something.

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