oelier

I like Barak Obama.  I like his ideas.  I like his energy.  I like his style.

I don't like how people seems to have handed him all their problems and are saying, "Well.  We've elected the best leader.  Now it's time to sit back and wait for things to get better."  He's been put on a pedestal.  Never a good thing.  Already the Smithsonian is planning to recreate one of his field offices.    Granted, it probably has as much to do with being the first African-American elected president as anything else.  But one can't help but wonder if there isn't something of idolizing also involved.  In my mind, idols represent something untouchable, something unattainable.  Idols are counter to Barak's central campaign message, "Yes we can!"  Over and over, I've heard people say, "He's proven that it can be done."  This doesn't sound like an idol.  It sounds like a role model.

Leaders lead.  Saviors save.  Many of the people I've heard talk about how things are going to change seem to believe they've elected a savior.  The problem with saviors is that all you have to do for them to save you is to subscribe to their ideology (sometimes blindly so), and they will make your life better.  You can just sit around and say, "SHE will make things better," or "HE will make things right."  It is an idol, a deus ex machina.  Barak has shown that he is NOT an idol.  He leads.  He inspires, he motivates, he empowers us to play our part.  He knows very well he can't fix everything, much less do it himself. 

So why is he being placed on a pedestal?  I don't know.  My theory is that America has collective-ADHD.  Putting him on a pedestal, turning him into a savior, allows people to turn their efforts to the dazzling array of 'opportunities' and activities.  It allows them to get lazy.  I'm not talking physically lazy, or mentally lazy.  I'm talking about the inability of many people to maintain commitment to "the big picture."  By putting Barak on a pedestal, people are saying, "We've hired somebody to do something about the big picture so that I don't have to." 

One of Barak's biggest challenges is to take himself off the pedestal and convince people that his job is to be a role model, a leader, not an idol, a savior.  The question is, will he realize it?