Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 2:32:48 PM
In The Roots of Obama Worship James Ceaser argues that “Auguste Comte’s Religion of Humanity finds a 21st-century savior” in President Obama. Professor Ceaser’s Weekly Standard article provides an overview of Comte’s idea of a progressive movement through history, tracing the evolution of his views and highlighting some acolytes (John Stuart Mill, David Croly and his son Herbert). And yes, the views of a French social philosopher really can provide a method for understanding President Obama.
Professor Ceaser discusses why the Obama candidacy was such a cultural event and offers an explanation for President Obama’s rapid first year decline in approval. In the process of advancing his thesis, Mr. Ceaser offers persuasive analysis about: Mr. Obama’s speeches on foreign soil (that many characterized as nothing more than apology tours); why dogma compels the President to persist in criticizing George W. Bush (even at a risk to his domestic political standing); why postpartisanship excludes Republican “retrogrades” (those who “cling to their guns and bibles” are unworthy); and why the President’s approach to Islamic terrorism, while hurting his domestic standing, satisfies a higher calling.
Excerpts with emphasis added:
The confluence of the Religion of Humanity with the Obama campaign has every appearance of being a providential event. It was prepared by the advent in the 1990s of an ongoing world public opinion, something that had never previously existed. The focus was on views and attitudes about America, a symbol that was constructed under the guidance of the intellectual vanguard. This symbol, known as anti-Americanism, was given a human face in the first decade of this century when it was joined to the personage of George W. Bush. It was invested with every element deemed to be retrograde: the primacy of the nation, a claim of exceptionalism, and a set of principles—“nature and nature’s god”—grounded in theology and metaphysics. The world was depicted as comprising two fundamental “substances,” Bush and non-Bush, that were locked in a cosmic conflict.
Barack Obama’s coming served as the galvanizing force to carry the day for the cause of progress. Although Obama never conceived himself as playing a universal role when he launched his presidential bid, he awakened at some point in the campaign to the realization that he was no longer running merely for president of the United States. He was being selected for the much grander “office” of leader of a new world community. His credentials for this position were impeccable. Humanity as a concept formally includes everyone, but it is especially favorable to those who have previously been excluded from full recognition. (The old aristocrats, in Comte’s description, were hardly part of Humanity.)