mentalblog.com comments:
thank you. a very good piece by David Brooks indeed.
btw, the church episode was a very calculated move as well. this huge support that Obama enjoys among the blacks must be ascribed to his link to Rev. Wright, and Rev. Wright only. because he is simply ain't black without the church. fathered by an african not an american black, and a muslim noch dertzu, raised by white grandparents and a white mother, how is he a black candidate? only through his black church! but now he can disown the reverend as well.
very possibly a profound point. The question, though, is by what right do you judge them. The vast, vast majority of those who rail against the "establishment" are those outside it, and not necessarily by choice. Dare one say that even had he been on better terms with, um, life, he would still have kept up his anti-establishment stance? If not, by what right can he judge those who made it a little more?
(any personal offense is entirely unintended and regretted. As they say, m'redt in inyen. Moreover, perhaps a slightly(?) more conciliatory tone toward humanity may solve some problems).
aaargh, I'm not sure if this is what you're driving at, but Barack Obama's major life-grievance is clearly against the father who abandoned him - as evidenced by his first book among many other signs.
faruq, You are absolutely right that Barack Obama is a self-invented "African-American." Not one base-pair of a slave's DNA is locked up in his chromosomes, although on his mother's side, he is descended from slave owners. Nor did he grow up in the "African-American" cultural sphere. He chose his identity, to identify with the outwardly anti-authoritarian race merchants, communists, and agitators because 1) they have an outward struggle against the "father" of the "establishment" while 2) maintaining a secret loyalty to an even more authoritarian and even totalitarian "father" -- he thus rebels against and identifies and superseded the father at the same time.
a perfect chameleon:
white and black
Muslim and Christin or Communist
voted for campaign financing before he voted against it.
cool word from Brooks: "speechifier".
there is a book there on the subject of father abandonment and black culture.
You're right about a big problem in the culture. 40 years ago Daniel Patrick Moynihan said that the black family was in dire straits, because 25% of its babies were born out of wedlock. Now it's 80%.
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