From LarryD at Acts of Apostasy (another right-wing bitter clinger)
The Speech To Students: "Me Me Me Me And If The Country Fails, It's Your Fault!"
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First of all, the speech he gives, like most speeches he gives, is about him. I counted 64 times where he said "I", "I've", "I'm", "my" and other permutations of the first person pronoun. He talks about his disadvantaged background - as Pundette puts it so well, "do little ones really need to hear about his broken home, deadbeat dad, and devoted-but-grumpy mother?" Exactly!
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6 comments:
I'm not fan of Obama (check out my latest post), but I can't be critical of his usage of his own story. He has a "testimonial" style, and if we condemn his usage of it, then we need to condemn a lot of Christians and others in the way they share their beliefs.
I can't condemn him without condemning myself...have you ever counted the number of times I've used "I" or "I've" or "Me" in my own posts?
I, too, have a testimonial style. That alone isn't problematic, although it does tell me I need to work on the virtue of focusing on others. That is VERY true of me.
While I agree Obama is a complete narcissist, that factor of his personality comes out far more in other means than it does this particular speech. Use of one's own personal experience is powerful and is used to help others identify with oneself, so it's a good way to begin propaganda.
I'm all for condemning Obama, but we have to do it with honesty, and in a way that can't be used to reflect our own behavior. Remember...faith and reason.
Just because HE uses propaganda doesn't mean we have to; we can use TRUTH to the detriment of propaganda and do it without undermining a style of speaking that applies to many many Christians who use the same technique while they promote their beliefs. (Realizing of course that most of us aren't powerful, aren't dictators, and are interested in saving souls, not oppressing them.)
Adoro - the problem is that he doesn't tell his story. I'm not sure who's it is, but it darn sure isn't his. I make that quite clear in my original post on this speech. He lies about how he was raised and how Michelle was raised.
The fact of this is I was truthful - Obama was not!
Yeah, the fact is that he's a liar, I don't disagree. But the way this is written condemns all of we self-centered slugs and I have to lump myself in with him if so.
And dang....I hate defending O but in integrity in this sense I have to.
Well, LarryD wrote it so your beef is with him. I personally never mentioned this part of the speech even though I noticed it. I was way more concerned with other things he said. ;-) I just happen to think Larry is one of the funniest Catholic writers out there.
Aaaannnd ............ you can talk about yourself as much as you want on your blog. It isyour blog after all and we all love "hearing" it
Adrienne - thanks for the link!
Adoro - there's a time and a place for testimonials. In a speech where the focus ought to be on staying in school and committing oneself to getting an education, the president spent about half the time talking about himself, either on his upbringing (and as Adrienne said, it's a bit embellished) or on what he's going to do, or on what he expects. Those kinds of statements are more appropriate for an interview. IMHO, he ought to have stuck to the topic of getting a good education, doing the best one can, and finding something one loves to do - what one was born to do.
I think the difference between his 'testimony' and ours is that his is political, while ours, God willing, is humble and personal. His 'testimony' is a tool in his bag to get what he wants, while ours, by God's grace, is a witness to God's mercy.
Thanks for your charitable thoughts and comments. You're one of the nicest bloggers out there.
Thanks for your charitable thoughts and comments. You're one of the nicest bloggers out there.
Exactly!
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