PrintJune 3, 2008
Phony-Ops build the Obama Myth
Barack Obama's appeal to his legions of enthusiasts rests in no small part in their hearts. And where the heart is concerned, myths, images, and archetypes work their wonders on the nonrational faculties of the mind.
The biggest Phony-Op of the election season so far was that giant riverfront photo in Portland, Oregon with "the masses" yelling their lungs out, as if for a messianic King. Or at least we may make that sort of association. Archetypal Phony-Ops make for powerful unconscious media manipulation, and there will be a lot of them coming up. So this is a head's up if you don't want to get manipulated by the slick libs of the media.
Look at the crowd picture in the NYT on May 19, with Obama the lone speaker on the bunting-draped stand, surrounded by endless adoring throngs of people.
"By land and by sea, they came to see the great man speak. An estimated 75,000 in all turned out to see presidential hopeful Barack Obama at Portland's Waterfront Park yesterday afternoon -- a record crowd for Obama's own campaign, according to The New York Times, and a record crowd for Oregon political events, according to The Oregonian. Just look at them all!"
How do we know all those Oregonians were there to celebrate a political messiah? Well, (indignantly) why else would 75,000 masses get together in Oregon, just when the media need to let The People know about Our Chosen King? Maybe the tacit message of the photo -- that all those people really, really love the great man -- is true. But just to make sure enough people turned out, as exposed by Newsbusters, the slick Dems put on a free rock concert by the popular Decemberists band for 45 minutes prior to arrival of the Great Man. How many rock fans in Portland, OR, are going to miss that one?
The original Decembrists were members of a secret society that started a Russian revolt in 1825. The rock band of that name likes to start its concerts with the national anthem of the Soviet Union. Not one out of a hundred people at that concert know anything about the Decembrists as violent revolutionaries in Russia. The Left just loves to fool us with those sly little puns. It shows how much more they know their Marxism than the American suckers.
That's how they are building up Obama today. When they get done with him, Barack Obama will look like young King Aragorn out of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King.
The media will show us lots of photos with this archetype. Call it, "The People Greet Their Young King!"
Be honest, now, don't you get that little lump in your throat when you see a really basic archetype? Madonna and Child, Bill Clinton marching the US Marines up the West Lawn, The Grateful Masses Welcome their New King Obama? I do. That little lump in my throat tells me --- Uh-oh, I'm being suckered by another Phony-Op! In the infamous Clinton years we saw how Hollywood honchos Harry and Susan Thomason built up Bill Clinton with movie fakery. Anybody else remember the lucky "pebble cross" Bill found on the beach at Normandy? Remember Bill and Hillary dancing in the moonlight, just before the Monica scandal broke? Ever notice any of the media complaining about being used?
JRR Tolkien was a wonderful student of myth and story teller. But Professor Tolkien did not love the exploitation of mythology by Nazi propaganda in the 1930s, as he made very clear indeed.
Leni Riefenstahl was the "mythic" film propagandist for the Nazis -- and her methods are still being taught in film schools today. Soviet "Socialist Realism" was another big mythology-based propaganda art, and guess what? -- it just showed up again in Obama's campaign. That's what they teach in all the Media Arts schools today, along with the usual Leftist indoctrination. So the media know exactly how to use that kind of image on behalf of the Left.
On the other hand, John McCain is already being depicted as a crippled dwarf by nice people like these.
Oregon was a Phony-Op, a staged photo-op. The Clintons were masters of the phony-op, in the close coordination with their Hollywood friends. That's how Bill kept his numbers up.
But this tactic goes way back. The Czars did it, going back to the year 1500 when the Romanovs Czars came in. So did Julius Caesar more than a thousand years before that -- just check out Shakespeare's play, Act 1, Scene 2, where Caesar is offered the crown by Anthony on behalf of "the people of Rome," but nobly refuses --- only to change his mind later, forced by popular demand.
The most famous Russian opera, Boris Godunov, starts out with exactly this scene. Scene: The Kremlin: Crowd of peasants, drawn there by free food and herded by Cossacks with big whips. (True fact: Rock bands like The Decemberists came much later.) The poor people are told that Boris is praying to God for the wisdom to decide whether to accept the crown of All Russias. Poor Mother Russia is suffering and feels lost without a Czar to protect its people. The crowd moans in fear. Then they are literally told to shout, all together now, Hail, Hail, Boris Godunov, our new Czar!!
Boris gives in and accepts the crown. Nothing new about Obama's Phony-Op in Oregon. But we can all get unconsciously manipulated by these archetypal images -- like this one of Obama with a halo from Reuters.
So keep a sharp eye out for Phony-Ops. They will be coming at us as regular “news” features until Senator O wins. Then there'll be a lot more over the next four or eight years. But if John McCain wins you won’t see them, just as you haven't seen them with President Bush --- the most media-abused President since Ronald Reagan.
Just watch out for that little lump in your throat, the one that tells you, "Haven't I seen this before in Lord of the Rings?"
And whatever you do, don't swallow.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com
