I haven't read Obama's autobiography or his other book, and I'm not sure where this author is coming from, but I find this piece fascinating:
The New Republic Invisible Man by David Samuels How Ralph Ellison explains Barack Obama. Post Date Wednesday, October 22, 2008 http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=5c263e1d-d75d-4af9-a1d7-5cb761500092 Aside from some skewed political remarks of Samuels, and the unrealistic conclusion that Obama ought to reveal his true self, which Samuels has not unpacked as fully as a third party could do, Samuels did not tie together, among other things, the relationships connecting the liberal idealism Obama was raised on, his pragmatic learning about power in Indonesia and elsewhere, his community activism in, and the ultimate realpolitik he pursued as a politician. Samuels makes an interesting connection between Obama's perception of 3rd world realities and those of the American mainstream, but doesn't pursue it as far as he should have. Samuels sees the contradictions in Obama's story, and the peculiarities of racial identity in it, but he doesn't go far enough, even for a bourgeois writer. This is still only a tease, as is the Frontline documentary. Samuels intimates the consequences of petty bourgeois identity without fully drawing out its implications as it intersects with the peculiarities of both racial identity and crossover appeal. Triangulate community organizing and Jeremiah Wright, the Harvard Law School, and becoming an Illinois politician, to begin with, to draw out the weird logic of Obama's political trajectory. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
