Fanaticism Obliterates Feelings

Disjointed thoughts Re: this article in Good magazine (<3!)

I think what happened is that these young people, who originally had no direction (as pointed out in the article) and no real identity to call their own, treated Obama like Jesus, and the entire campaign like a religious cult. They sought to find a kind of identity in their fervor for Obama and they did, for a while — but being an Obama freak doesn’t pay the bills or move them forward into adulthood. And totally unlike Christianity that spans literally centuries and therefore easily many lifetimes down the generations, this campaign was freaking short. And once they got their happy ending and Obama was elected, it’s over — and it’s not like they’re waiting anything else, either. It’s like actually having an armageddon and every Christian being saved and all the nonbelievers annhilated. When it actually happens, it would be amazing and all the good Christians would celebrate and enjoy the festivities!

But then what?

People have certainly been saying something like this all throughout that campaign. Anyway I still think it’s ridiculous that some people take this and go a step further, comparing Obama and his young fans to Hitler who bred Nazi Youths, etc. because he is an impeachable politician and not a fascist butcher. And I don’t think Obama intentionally create myths about his abilities as the president. Just as Christianity (and all its shocking misdeeds) wasn’t Jesus’s fault, the fault here lies mainly on the youths themselves. Their incredible dedication to Obama campaign was a copout and an escapist’s pretension of courage. They wanted to feel like they had dreams and ideals and a sense that they are in charge of their own future — but of course that’s all a joke, when they aren’t really willing to work to take charge of anything.

They just said Obama will make it all good again and bet all their money on him. The whole point of Obama was that he wanted America to work again, do the stuff people don’t like to do because stuff like that has to be done. But instead of doing that, studying hard and rolling up their sleeves, his young followers (who are clearly obssessed with easy fame and success — the number of YouTube videos of guitar-playing people and “amateurs” who apply to be the next top model, next American idol, next this, next that is devastatingly large and getting larger) just decided to put all their energy towards getting this guy elected — and it’s fun, because the whole process feels a lot like a popularity contest at their high schools or a cool party full of people similar to them or a club that is larger than life. In their fanaticism and euphoria, they wholeheartedly believed that Obama in the White House would solve everything, and that he will make sure of their future happiness (kinda like God will make sure of their future happiness, if you just believe in him, make your love for him your life’s work, and doing nothing else to really help yourself).

But of course that doesn’t happen, because Obama isn’t God. And he doesn’t claim to be! At all. He repeatedly says: we all have to work. I’m not a saviour. It’s not just me who can bring this country out of the deep shit it is in now.

But no one wants to hear that. They don’t even take it seriously. They think he says that because he is humble and generally a nice cool guy who says nice cool things like that. They just think it’s one of those inconsequential and meaningless pep talks motivational speakers give: work hard, guys!

The consequences of interrupting their lives for the campaign is that when they are done, they have to get back to their everyday lives, which is made very difficult. They suddenly have to do work — real work — and they have to do more work than their peers who did not spend a year on the trail. They fell behind and they have to work harder than others, which isn’t as fun as handing out buttons and chanting and rallying (which is practically a cheering party). As a result, they feel hopeless and sad and hallower than they already were once they face the harshness of real, adult life. It’s their own fault though. They set themselves up for it.

Obama, on the other hand, was trying to get elected President of the United States as a black man with little aside from his intellect. He needed the hype be elected. He exploited the hype — which I guess could be ethically questionable, but then what route to winning isn’t? — and let the fanatics exploit themselves for him, because otherwise he wouldn’t have won. I think him winning was more important (not only to him, but also for everyone else) than making sure that none of his volunteers were crazy kids in an identity crisis, because losers get nothing. Losers really lose and there was just too much at stake.

Hatred be stilled by hatred

Take a look at the KKK website (http://www.kkk.com/) - but only if you are not white. Of course, it’s truly unfair that I can browse the website out of academic interest in the middle of the library (avoiding my stats exam) without being accused by anyone of white supremacist beliefs, while a caucasian would not dare. It’s unfortunate, because I know well that you only would do so out of curiosity and disgust. Still, it probably would not be a good idea to visit the site if you are white, because a) if you are in public space, people will accuse you of being a white supremacist, which you may have a difficult time refuting, if only because denying racism is rarely convincing – and b) if you are alone in your room, I guarantee you that you will feel disgusting and violated afterwards. So don’t visit the site if you are white -the satisfaction of your curiosity is not worth it in this case.

They are suffering from unusually high traffic (in the light of the recent election, some people must be realizing their own bigotry and checking out the infamous group – or maybe some are made curious like me) so it does not direct you right away to the main site. Although I have checked out the group on wikipedia before, I never even thought of checking its website out! I didn’t think they would have such an active community online, but I am clearly mistaken. It seemed too much like a thing of the past, no longer relevant in our times. 

There are reportedly about 5,000 to 8,000 members of ”the Klan” among an estimated 179 chapters today. Certainly, it is a huge decrease from its peak in 1924 at 4,000,000 members. The site sell T-shirts, buttons, books, and stickers. It streams a white supremacist television show. You can print out a legal form from the site to ensure that in the case of your death, you children will be adopted by a heterosexual, white, and Christian couple. The site also claims that KKK’s doctrines are about love, not hate. It’s not about hate, but about God, America, and white fraternity against those that threaten them with their homosexuality and darker skin.

So a few questions: are they innocuous as long as they do not lynch anyone? Can we condemn them for just believing these things, although they do not quite act on it (yet)? Although Winston’s thoughtcrime was one of freedom and love, a KKK member’s “thoughtcrime” is a hateful and disturbing one – but does that distinction allow us to punish them for their “thoughtcrime”? It’s a slippery slope! The website is a shameless outlet of their hatred, but can we punish them for a website? After all: freedom of opinion! And especially on internet, where anonymity is possible.  

Although they are a minority, I do not know how comfortable I feel about a single one of them remaining in our society like a “benign” tumour. I would like them off the streets (does that make me prejudiced and fascist?), if we can’t reform them (which we realistically cannot) - but direct and overt oppression has never worked before when dealing with a fanatical minority group. They’ll be martyred and elevated as the “victims” of the society (e.g. Christian movement in Ancient Rome), which is dangerous - which I guess is why the government takes no real action against these local and relatively/arguably powerless groups.

Should we just wait until the organization starts acting on its impulses? Or is it in the process of dying, made obscure as a defunct ancient cult? Or should we just let it be? Freedom of opinion?

It is way easier to teach people how to use machine guns than to be human

Check this out.

I guess some people actually think that killing a presidential candidate is a step towards achieving their racist and white supremacist aspirations. To me, that sounds plain silly. Murdering Barack Obama will only shock people into talking about the issue of racism. No one’s going to clap for them aside from their fellow white supremacists – and mostly from inside their closets. Nothing will be gained! They will be ostracized and anti-racism movement will gain a stronger voice.

If they murder Obama, it will be publicized like omfg. Then people will stop viewing these dangerous ideas as things of the past, and start taking them seriously as something that unfortunately has a presence in the world. Assassinating a young and beloved politician of hope will only make him a martyred saint and a stock example of racism in the 21st century, giving anti-racism activists more material to work with. And that’s probably not what a couple of white supremacists want.

But I guess these drug addicts are just kids, living in the clouds without any real agenda – which is a relatively comforting thought. They may have a distorted view of the world, but are thankfully stupid – which means they will never be able to give power to their distorted view. I do not find them particularly dangerous – not because I am certain that they are incapable of murdering Obama but because they do not even know how to use their hate properly. They are hateful, but powerless. They haven’t got a clue.

Racism, like sexism or homophobia, is an art. It needs to be subtle, hidden (sometimes even from oneself) and moderate. It has to feign fairness. It has to use the epithet “Statistics show that…” consistently. It has to be perfectly polite. It has to be quiet and agreeable. Racism has undergone a revolution (after WWII? only recently?) and now the trend is to be as silent as possible – or at least sugarcoat it until it is unrecognizable.

In comparison to competent artists of racism, these raving meth users are harmless. No one will ever listen to them. No one will ever want to be associated with them. They will just be considered “knuckleheads” and “whack jobs”.

Although they’re probably just a bunch of kids high and rambling about scary and serious things they know nothing about (and there’s no evidence that they are a real threat, an article says) things like this make me kind of nervous. They should tighten the security around Obama and keep the guy safe.