Metaphor Country

You're On Your Own

If I had any doubts going in, he got me with this.

You might recall that a couple of days ago I mentioned this.

And back in March on my Alzheimer's blog, I wrote this.  The paragraph in question, about three quarters of the way down, reads:

Add to this another issue -- the society's fetish for individualism -- and you've got the makings of a perfect storm.  Hey, Alzheimer's caregiver -- you're on your own.  Figure out the disease and pull together a whole patchwork of underfunded volunteer organizations and hey, what great initiative you're showing.  We're all cheering for you.  Shame about your lost productivity.  And Alzheimer's patient -- speaking of productivity, well, it was nice you had all those productive years but since you're not productive anymore, you're not really in the center of our awareness.  We're busy marketing to youth (and beyond that dividing the society up into separate, mutually hostile groups so we can market to all of them) and looking after the needs of our shareholders.  We feel for you, but what have you done for us lately?

I don't usually quote myself and I'm not doing it here to get all egomaniacal on your ass.  I'm doing it to point out that Obama's onto something big and critical.  There are millions of cuts on this story in the naked city.  Mine is just one of them.

By the way, the columns turned out to be a non-issue, didn't they?

Note to self: don't be a pundit.  Don't follow the pundit herd.

The real issue are elsewhere.

The Perspective from Street Level

Am more than ready to be persuaded/bowled over by Obama.

Grappling at the moment in my own way with the collapse of the Great Society and the many reasons the whole free market thing doesn't work.

Obama Goes to Olympus

He's going to accept the nomination in front of fake greek columns?

Oy!

Bad imagery.  Bad, bad imagery.

Are they determined to lose this thing?

Sullivan picked it up and has more here.

It's Just an Archetype, Dear - Go Back to Sleep

Got a newsletter this morning from self-proclaimed marketing guru Clotaire Rapeille of Archetype Discoveries Worldwide ("the reptilian always wins").  It reports, among other things, that while they're both reptilian, Hummers aren't selling and Minis are because "the Hummer represents the Bush, masculine side - let's go and kill them" and "we are now into the feminine side - everything should be green, protect the environment and be sustainable.  The key words are protecting, saving and caring - not attack and destroy."

Whew, that' s a relief.  Here I thought it had something to do with geopolitics and the price of gas.  But no - no need to do all that work.  Just follow the archetypes.  Think about one simple thing, not many complex things, and everybody'll be fine.

No wonder this stuff appeals to marketers.  Marketers are always looking for the shortcut.  Magic beans, not hard work.  "All you have to do is... X!"  In this case, remember that The Reptilian Always Wins.

It gets worse:

Hillary lost the nomination because she was not wearing a skirt; she missed the feminine trend. She did not lose because she is a woman, she lost because she is not "left" enough of a woman – she is not feminine enough. Nancy Pelosi is a woman surrounded by children and who always dresses like a woman.

Obama won because he was more feminine than Hillary. He is soft, integrative, is not exclusive and for unity. Men make definitions by exclusion. Woman are into inclusion, they make definitions by adding – “this is it, this is it too, and this is also it” and it never really ends. This is the Obama structure. He integrates different countries, different races, different classes and this is what is appealing to the world.

Bush, the Hummer is out, Obama the Mini is in.

More evidence of the joy of simplicity: Adweek sent a bunch of creative directors off to bake some political ads.  The sad results are here and there are some additional ones and good commentary here.  Head nod to Andrew Sullivan for both writeups.

Sure beats grappling with reality.

Obama: Not from Alpha Centauri

Two days into the convention and the tone is worrisome.  Michelle's speech gets raves but the content boils down to "Barack: he's not a space alien.  No, he's a real person just like you."  And Hillary: "Fanatical supporters, please consider unity."  The country's on the slide and the Republicans are purpose-built targets and yet somehow the whole Democratic stance is about damage control.

Attack them, you fools...

Drawing the Line

Obviously I'm running behind in getting this site revived.  Unfortunately am still directing most of my energy over here.

But I thought it was past time to draw a line on the site and say - everything below this entry represents the past.  And it sure was nice being a centrist for a while.  And even sometimes a right-centrist, who thought it was a good thing to carry the war to the Islamic world et cetera et cetera yadda yadda yadda.

As an ex-New Yorker I think I can say with some justification that in the wake of the events of September 11 and so forth we all lost our collective minds.

Nothing like a few years as an Alzheimer's caregiver to re-radicalize you and shift you back to the left.  Because all that free-market, power of the individual, "Hey, you're on your own - good luck with that!" doesn't get you very far in the Alzheimer's caregiving business. 

Nice broken-down excuse for a system we've got here.

I'm trying to be non-doctrinaire (it's a Zen thing) but count me in the Obama camp - when I can spare the time for ideology, that is.

So now you know.  Read the stuff below the line and enjoy yourself.  I'm not going to blow it up because things are what they are and things were what they were.

More soon.