Sometimes It Pays To Be a Geek
August 8, 2008
When I first saw the story (and accompanying propaganda poster) about how Obama’s legions of adoring followers had tapped into their collective wisdom and created an “Obama gang sign,” called — vomit-inducingly — the “Sign of Progress,” I immediately thought (1) they have to be kidding (actual quote: “Our goal is to see a crowd of 75,000 people at Obama’s nomination speech holding their hands above their heads, fingers laced together in support of a new direction for this country, a renewed hope, and acceptance of responsibility for our future,” says Rick Husong) and (2) that looks an awful lot like the “symbol of peace” sign that the space-hippies in that Star Trek episode, “The Way To Eden” make as a sign of allegiance with their clinically-insane leader Dr. Sevrin, who tries to take over the USS Enterprise and steer it into Romulan territory so that they can reach a planet called Eden, only to be rescued at the last minute by Captain Kirk and Co. (I’m glad I wasn’t the only one).
I can’t wait to see if they manage to throw the sign in unison somewhere. At that point, we will know that America has fallen to idiots and that our entire culture is doomed. We should also start planning, as Erick Erickson says, which Obama re-education camp we’d like to go to. I think I’ll stick with the Chicago headquarters. I assume, though, that there will be branch offices in Ann Arbor, Boston, Austin, San Francisco and New Hampshire. The whole state.
The sign, though, (to get back to the subject) also happens to be hilariously reminiscent of goatse (that’s a Wikipedia link, click it because I don’t want to explain it), which makes me wonder…how many of you out there are familiar with the work of Banksy? For those who have no handle on the work of modern graffiti artists, Banksy is a sort-of anonymous, gureilla British street artist (or, as some suspect, a team of sort-of anonymous, guerilla street artists) who run all over the UK and some parts of the US spray-painting artistic works that satirize popular culture and modern life, like this…
I have to think that, unless the people who are working up all these Obama strategies are totally and completely stupid, that they have to know that their grandiose ideas are actually recycled ideas from the annals of pop culture. Maybe they are just that dumb, or at least a majority of them are, but my point is, could a great deal of this Obamania be orchestrated as a giant piece of contemporary performance art meant to satirize Obama’s image as the Beloved Leader and Savior of All Humanity? If true — if there is a small, “V”-like group of artistic mercenaries undermining the Obama campaign by pumping it full of utter insanity such as this gang sign — it has all the requisite qualities: it satirizes something that takes itself too seriously by incorporating elements of the ridiculous, its timely and political, its endlessly creative and varied, and it really makes you think about the state of our modern culture…it really gives you an insight into man’s inability to think clearly without the assistance of a group, shows the naked underbelly of modern liberal thought and exposes it as nothing more than a veneer of personality over tired ideas, and it shows, quite clearly, that no matter how much we study history, we are doomed to repeat the political fervor surrounding a strong personality. It could be the most complex and successful performance art in history!
Or the legion of Obama fans really is that stupid.
We report, you decide.
Posted in Uncategorized
August 8th, 2008 at 7:27 am
The part that I find funniest is that the American Sign Language symbol for a certain lower-body orifice is a circle made with one hand. So, if my memory is correct, Obama’s new symbol quite literally announces to the world that he’s a large asshole. Sometimes reality is just too precious.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Hell, the Ron Paul fans didn’t even go THIS far!
August 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Perhaps the appropriate response to this silly gesture in the one-finger salute.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:05 am
or just a two-handed W for Whatever.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
you have to have “rachmanis” (mercy/compassion) for his devotees, because he is filling a spiritual void;
Upon seeing the gathered multitude, Jesus was moved with compassion
for them, “because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. Mark 6.34