Barack Obama really irks me. Whenever I listen to him speak, this weird feeling rushes through my body. It occurred to me that the sentiment I was experiencing is usually called "hope." He gives me a sense of faith in humankind. It's sickening.
As a Jew, I was raised to have a healthy skepticism about everything. I don't believe that the dish ran away with the spoon. Maybe one plus one equals two, maybe it doesn't? The government could be telling the truth, but probably not. That skepticism defines me. If I wasn't a bitterly sardonic Jew, I don't know what I'd be. Maybe a gentile?
And there in lies my problem with Obama. He's so damn inspirational. I don't want to believe in things. I want to mock things. To quote Robert Kennedy's short Jewish friend, "He dreams things that never were and says, why not. I see things that are and say, look at this schmuck." What if I start seeing the world through rose-colored glasses, instead of as the shithole that it is? Then I might become a happy, kind, likeable person. And that would be a tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment