As the election draws closer and closer, I can't tell if I'm beginning to get really angry, or just really disgusted. I think that I may just have to watch the Food Channel until the Obamamamia Frenzy has run its course. I'll also have to leave the radio off and simply use my CD player or finally go out and buy one of those MP3 players and load it up full of music that makes me happy.
Many of you don't know this, but I am a crazy, fanatical student of history. History excites me, invigorates me, enlightens me. Sure, there are all kinds of academic snobs out there, but for me...give me a good book about history and I couldn't be happier unless I was trapped in a bakery overnight!
One thing I've learned from all of this historical reading is that there have been many, many leaders who have claimed to be The One, The Messiah, the Deliverer, The Redeemer. Today we're witnessing no less of a spectacle than have our friends of the past.
Napolean, for instance, was so self-important that he proclaimed himself a dictator for life. Well, I think we all know how that ended up.
Hitler, too, was thought by his people to be sitting at the right hand of God. Sad how that turned out, as well. Because of newsreels, we have the benefit of watching the awestruck faces of the crowds when they would watch Hitler, and I am struck by the similar frenzy I am seeing today.
I was recently in a line at a local market and, of course, CNN was playing overhead on the plasma TV while shoppers waited in line. When Obama came on the TV a woman in the lane next to mine started yelling out, "Quiet! Can't you see that the President is speaking?" I watched her face for a moment, and then I looked at the other people around me. Even the cashier stopped what she was doing to listen. They were mesmerized by this man. This man of flesh, blood and the same self-importance that I've read about in history books. I left my cart full of groceries and walked out, going to a store with no overhead TV's, and resuming my marketing. Nobody noticed that I had left, so transfixed on their Savior were they.
Throughout history we've been witness to the cruelty of despots and to the vicarious nature in which certain segments of the population of nations have "served" their earthbound dieties as if a simple glimpse will transport them to The Promised Land.
Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Mao Tse Tung, Mugabe, "The Dear Leader" of Korea, Eva Barone - none of these self-important and self-proclaimed messengers of God have done much of anything good for their people. I doubt that Obama can deliver anything good to us, either.
I know my Redeemer, my Messiah, my Deliverer, and I know that when He does return I won't be here to write this stupid blog. My castle is not of this earth.
