Zeit-Gerson
Michael Gerson continues his obsession with German Idealism:
There are passages from Obama speeches that embody all these things — parts of his Nobel Prize speech come to mind. But they mainly serve as reminders of what is too often missing. Even Obama’s well-constructed lectures — such as his Philadelphia race speech or his Cairo remarks — are marred by a transparent rhetorical ploy. In Obama’s running seminar, a flawed thesis and a flawed antithesis are always resolved by the synthesis of Obama himself — the speaker as Hegelian culmination of history. In this way, Obama manages to be both academic and arrogant. Instead of exploring the genuinely historic nature of his time, he veers toward messianism. His arrival is “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
-Sam
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