Disquieting Heroic Fantasies

Thoughts on Barack Obama’s delusions about himself:

I have written before about Obama’s deep, almost desperate, need to portray himself as the opposite of what he is, to conceive of himself in a way that is at odds with reality. We have seen it in all sorts of areas, including claiming himself to be a voice of civility, portraying himself as a champion of bi-partisanship, lecturing others about profligate spending, and saying he is the only responsible “adult” in Washington. Now we see this habit in a new arena – this time, the president as Obama the Stoic, a man so committed to “pressing on” for the cause of social justice he just doesn’t have time to feel sorry for himself. Indeed, he has now decided to sermonize to others not to complain, not to grumble, and to “stop crying.”

This is akin to John Edwards hosting a weekend seminar on the importance of marital fidelity.

The question is: does he believe it himself, or is he just trying to fool us? Either way it is, as he says, disquieting.

14 thoughts on “Disquieting Heroic Fantasies”

  1. I’d recommend a post by Spengler

    “…Of course, the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria have more to do with insurance reimbursements than science, but one might as well follow the logic and see where it leads. My early premise was that Obama was a sociopath, not a narcissist as such…”

    “…The model for Barack Obama in American popular fiction, I suggested, wasn’t Sinclair Lewis’ fallen preacher Elmer Gantry, but rather the carnival mentalist played by Tyrone Power Jr. in the 1947 noire film “Nightmare Alley.” Power’s midway mind-reader evinced the classic profile of a sociopath: the abandoned child who learns too well how to manipulate adults. He lies, cheats, and betrays his way to the top, until he inevitably cracks….”

  2. His delusions of adequacy run deep:

    “I’m Lebron, baby. I can play on this level. I got game.”

    He thinks he’s the smartest man in any room, so he doesn’t need to listen to anyone else. He’s wrong. At some point in his life, he likely was told that he was one of the “best and brightest” and unfortunately for all of us, he believed it.

  3. I don’t think he’s a sociopath, as he doesn’t match on most of the diagnostic criteria. I think he’s just delusional, subject to profound levels of self-deception. As Steven Pinker and others have pointed out, self-deception is the best way to get around humans’ innate lie detecting ability, because if you believe your own lies then the normal tells aren’t there for others to pick up on. Such an ability often leads a person to important leadership roles (by convincing the masses that the delusion is reality), but when the rubber hits the road, tragedy and folly is the usual result.

    Perhaps the vast gulf between those who saw through Obama and those who were enraptured is that some listened to his delusional plans and saw them as dangerous, idiotic, delusional folly, a thowback to every failed idea from the 60’s left (socialism, radical communism, class-warfare, wacko-environmentalism, etc) and some stupidly thought that those ideas were correct, but that they just hadn’t been tried yet by an effective leader who really believes in them.

  4. I really couldn’t say where I got the first strong sense that he wasn’t up to the big job. Lots of little signs — the voting “present,” the always having his way cleared for him, the abject lack of modesty about where he was, how he got there, and what he was embarking on.

    Barack Obama benefited much from the niceness of others — had they been kind instead he might have turned out a better man.

  5. How does someone whose sole claim to fame was writing not one but two books primarily about himself not considered an archetypical narcissist?

  6. The political biography has become a standard trick in the bag over the last few decades. Everyone of them does it. I wouldn’t single Obama out on that. It was done because a campaign manager decided it was a good idea and set the optimum release date for whatever effect on the next election they were planning.

  7. Perhaps, but writing two autobiographies before your 50th birthday when you have not accomplished much of anything in life does seem rather much. Politicians as a subspecies do tend to have rather high opinions of themselves which shows they have little grasp of how everyone else sees them.

    Writing books is also a good way to get around campaign finance laws, as former Speaker of the House Jim Wright proved. He published a book that was little more than a bunch of press clippings and it sold very well to labor unions as a way to channel money to him. He’s surely not the only one to use that little trick.

  8. Who cares what Obama thinks. What matters is he is a disaster.

    This seems to be an example of people, not Obama, not being able to just accept reality.

    Why do it? Because people want to like Obama, so let’s hold hands and find an excuse for his behavior. If the result is the same, what does it matter if he’s self delusional or just a liar?

    Get him out of office, then find him a psychologist. He’ll have good health and retirement thanks to the American people.

  9. Somebody has to believe his BS, it might as well be the BSer, himself!! And the idea that his ego could be defeated is a remarkable idea in and of itself.

  10. After reading “Confidence Men” by Ron Suskind, I am convinced, convinced that the guy in charge at the White House is vain, misogynous, pompous, narcicistic, self inflated, untalented, and without any sense of shame or self introspection.

    But enough about Larry Summers . . . (cue snare drum rim shot).

  11. And Obama could have been such a brilliantly heroic man if it weren’t for the GOP kids in Congress and that darn tootin’ filibuster.

  12. Josh,
    yeah, that’s why they couldn’t put a budget together when they held BOTH houses of Congress and the White House. It was those goofy GOP guys holding them back.

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