“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” Ephesians 5:6 (NASV)
“For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting” Romans 16:18 (NASV)
If there’s one description of liberals that is nearly universal it is that they prefer style over substance with few or no exceptions. This helps explain why those who work in such heady professions as acting and journalism flock to the left. These are the institutions of shallowness, given to affectation and special effects, explosions without fire, passions without meaning, sound bytes and and photographs, one sentence quotes with 5000 words of exposition. They produce nothing but vacuous words and cinema, in attempts either to recreate or describe actual or imagined events.
Of course it is not just actors and journalists who adopt the liberal philosophy. But certainly there are countless people who have been effected by these journalists who portray themselves as uninterested bystanders. How many were effected by Walter Cronkite with his dogmatic sign off “and that’s the way it is” as though the watcher was being furnished inerrant truth? And yet he helped to convince the American people that the Vietnam war was unwinnable despite the success of the Tet offensive and the general belief by the troops in Vietnam that they would be victorious.
And how many are swallowing whole the myth of Barak Obama, the second coming of Bono? His following is very appropriately much like a rockstar’s. He gets up on stage, thrills a crowd with meaningless words and goes back on the road. He boasts like a professional wrestler and never bothers to utter one word with meaning, substituting inane platitudes. Listening to a Barak Obama speech reminds me of Polonius from Hamlet. (Apparently, great minds think alike as George Will noticed the similarities also, though admittedly much earlier than I.) See http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/this_is_the_time_for_obama.html For both Obama and Polonius’ great words, they lacked action. And both play the fool. Their words pile on top of words, without any real sense of impending action or purpose. But it could be said that both used their words to deceive. (would you expect anything less from a politician like Obama?) Polonius’ actions were underhanded, deceptive, and foolish and he pays the ultimate price for his underhanded tactics. His multitude of platitudes were camouflage for mistrust and treachery. In Obama’s case, the empty words–bathed in sincerety and full of good intentions– hide a nearly empty resume and radical socialist idealism.
These words resemble a Japanese koan: a riddle with no answer and which defies logic. (“We are the ones we have been waiting for”?”We are the change we seek”? these two quotes Obama loves so much he puts one puzzler right after the other so if someone stops to actually think about what he’s saying, he’ll forget the last and probably just give up to the emotional exuberance)
There is a certain poetry to the words Obama spews forth and he certainly manages to maintain a certain authority and even majesty as he proclaims the new gospel. He poses and smiles with the aura of the all too overrated JFK. His chin is always lifted slightly up, he pauses gracefully for applause. He is the Hollywood Presidential candidate that even Hollywood couldn’t make up. And just like a made for tv movie, he’s hollow, shallow, and aimed at an undiscerning public.
The problem with conservative ideas is that they aren’t easily simplified. The virtues of the free market are hidden obscured by fraudulent activity like that at Enron. It doesn’t work well for those who want instant results, but more importantly, it does work. Socialism, on the other hand destroys the work ethic and innovation. The easy route in foreign policy would be to close the borders and bring all the troops home. It sounds good to those who would rather not worry about the consequences of their actions. Such shallow thinking is dangerous. The promises of Barak Obama are exclusively like this. They are bromides that have serious implications. Hillary Clinton could at the least see some of the negative effects of dangerous policies and most likely would follow the “triangulation” strategy that Bill used quite effectively while he was in office. Barak Obama, I fear has actually began believing his own Messiah rhetoric.
