mawkish media merchandise mlk, obama
Music: Coil: Love's Secret Domain (1991)
I've been nursing a sick foster kitty and laboring under some deadlines and took a brief trip to Waco to see my peeps Roger and Amanda, so I have not been bloggish, and I'm having withdrawal symptoms. I have to jet to a meeting, then workout, then up to the lodge for our "stated" (e.g., our business meeting), so this will be brief.
The inauguration tomorrow has been on my mind, and not only because of its historical significance. It's been on my mind because television, facebook, and phone calls (props to Shaun, I'm calling back soon) have been not letting us think about anything else. It's been on my mind because yesterday I saw an advertisement for a $7,500 piece of glass with Obama's face etched into it (in the New York Times magazine). It's been on my mind because I saw an Obama plate for sale in the coupon section of the Sunday paper. It's been on my mind because every network television station has been packaging their prophetic news coverage and pimping it in commemorative DVDs (the 60 Minutes DVD is particularly self-congratulatory). It's been on my mind because Anne Curry almost shed a tear after a maudlin segment last night on NBC in which John Legend certified Obama's presidency was historically very important. It's been on my mind because montages of Martin Luther King juxtaposed with Obama have been aired to the sound of one of my most favorite soul songs, "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke. It's been on my mind because my mother worried on the phone last night that there might be an assassination attempt. It's been on my mind because NBC re-aired their Saturday Night Live presidential spoofs last night. It's been on my mind because Obama gets sworn in while I am teaching class, and I'm worried we will not be able to stream it because the technology always fails in the auditorium.
The inauguration has been on my mind because of the oversentimentalization of Obama's presidency, and the extreme willfulness of the mainstream media to turn a historical event into a Spielberg movie (I'm sure America's Favorite Director is already writing a script for the soon-to-be-released echo). The inauguration has been on my mind because the official aesthetic of the Obama campaign and presidency was created by Shepard Fairey, the artist most famous for his big-brother "Obey" art which is plastered all over the United States in urban areas. Fairey's website touts his mission as creating "propaganda engineering."
The inauguration has been on my mind because the mass media has become a mawkish merchandiser, but a merchandiser for what? Demagoguery, of course. Is it only me that smells the fascism in all of this pomp and circumstance and tear-jerking? Is it just me who thinks MLK is rolling over in his grave at the way in which the dream has been deferred? Is it just me who notices a dangerous combination of circumstance: sentimental propaganda with a fascist aesthetic + idealism unleashed + dour economic times + two failed "wars" + a truly dazzling public speaker as the leader of the free world, but a dazzling public speaker who is willing to abandon "his people" for higher office (I'm thinking here of Rev. Wright). We are witnessing demagoguery on a stick, the yearning for a New Daddy who will restore order.
While all the conditions are right for an even bigger power-grab by the presidency, there is a tiny glimmer of hope in me that Obama will not do such a thing. Still, this inauguration---or more specifically, the way in which the mainstream media is covering it---makes me nervous.