(Caution, I think this is a fairly low quality post in which a yabber on about something I have already discussed. You have been warned)
This afternoon, after Obama had been inaugurated, I had drawing class. My drawing teacher is a really smart guy, and in a similar method to myself, leaps to completely different perspectives on topics.
The topic was Obama as President. Now the main point he suggested was that the media control politics because they control what the general public see. Now to a certain extent that is true. That is probably true in terms of getting Bush elected. You pay media, they give you coverage, you can get elected. Through this logic, those with the money control the world. Not a bad theory.
But I disagree in the case of Obama. Obama didn't win by paying the media and getting more coverage. Money can only get you so far. Obama used an idea to get elected. I will tentatively say that he latched on to a "meme" to win the election. (I use it tentatively because I find its meaning often misused which maybe someday I will be able to explain).
The idea he latched on to was fairly simple. Change. Desire for something different. It was an extremely simply message, which while easy to describe as "change" actually is harder to pin down. I would almost describe the "meme" as simply a guttural feeling that change should be coming, or is coming, or you want it to come. It was a feeling/idea that seemed to infect people, that could spread. Its a feeling that gets into you and makes you want to vote for Obama even if your a Canadian.
It's a feeling that makes you want to tell the world about it. And thus the feeling will spread. It spread through the internet. Through Obama's campaign design. Through his speeches. Through the music videos. It spread through people simply talking about Obama.
The feeling had so much power it got Obama elected. Now supposed the worst. Suppose it is all a sham that has been engineered from the ground, by the most evil corporations on the planet. Suppose some how the US government is going to start acting even more irrationally and do even more stupid things. What would happen?
The whole thing would shatter. In an instant the truth would be known. There would be revolution. This feeling that has spread across the world simply wouldn't allow the wrong thing to remain. The people who had been feeling change would force it. I don't know exactly how, but I'm fairly certain it would matter what the government did, the ball of change is already rolling and there is simply no stopping it. Obama simply was able to take advantage of this meme and become President.
Kyler
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