Message And Audience At George Mason University

Honest, this is not about That Bill--The Bill That Dare Not Speak Its Name.

It's about the culture, and the use of language, and the manipulation of message by means of an audience.

This morning, Himself headed out to George Mason University for a campaign rally. Without a doubt, the man knows how to give a stump speech. The crowd was cheering and applauding--sounded like a basketball pep rally, OS thought at first.

Then came the 'Aha' moment: It was a basketball pep rally!

There is no better place to get a loud and happy crowd than a university. Those late adolescent college kids are simultaneously the most biddable, and most assured of their intellectual maturity, of any demographic in the society. And, as students at a private university, they believe they are God's Chosen(although they may never verbalize it just that way). How could they be wrong? What could go wrong, when everything leading up to today has gone so wonderfully right? They've never had to balance a life of work, parenthood, marriage, finances, aging parents, etc. At this point, someone else is doing that; they're just on the front end of that process, and cannot imagine just how difficult it can become, and how quickly it can become difficult. They can't know, they're too young to know.

So, a charismatic speaker can tell them what they want to hear, and the cameras and audio can broadcast the cheers to the world. He can talk to them in tones of the coach of the underdog team, that has prevailed against all odds to arrive at this day when the team climbs on the bus to head off to The Big Game. 'We're gonna make history this weekend!' Does this sound familiar?

It's heady stuff. Really. It's jolly near Hollywood script-writer quality. He bashes the insurers, the kids cheer. He bashes anyone who stands in His way, the kids cheer. He promises them they can stay on Mom-and-Dad's policy until they are twenty-six, and they really really really cheer! (He saves that bit until toward the end, like the coach does when he finally introduces the point guard who drains all those three-pointers for the team, and the school, and the student body.)

How could the rest of us possibly deny Him and them what they so ardently want?

OS thinks it's evil to do this to students, and to use students to manipulate the rest of the culture. Obama is certainly not the first to do this, but he does it better than most.

Presidents are supposed to be grown-ups. Grown-ups don't knowingly abuse kids.

At least they don't in a healthy culture.

In the meantime, the grownups who answer to the stockholders of Catterpillar Corporation aren't cheering about the bill, estimating it will add $100,000,000 to annual costs.

That 100,000,000 in expenditure will not build or sell one additional piece of heavy equipment.

The actual unemployment rate of the US hovers at about 16%.

Makes you want to stand up and cheer, don't it?