I like the title of the IHT article: Obama get’s Europe’s ear, pleasing crowds without specifics. Because, this is exactly what happens with Obama. I know that politicians have to do this whole song and dance–they have to talk about our shared ideals, about WWII, about fighting fascism and communism together, and the new challenges posed by the environment, terrorism, the widening North-South divide, etc. But the rhetoric is just so empty–because it’s hackneyed–and I think that’s why I will never find politics interesting compared to the types of speech that you find in literature or philosophy–or even the dialogues in film.
The only problem is that politics is so much more important in shaping the lives of people–or so we are lead to think–than is literature or the arts. That’s why people hang on Obama’s words and pundits scribble their notes down furiously and give their two cents worth on live TV right after. But in the end, who knows–something some one read in a novel
or saw in a film might affect their deeper sense of what life is, and how to live that life. And in that regard, culture “wins”.
