Michael Brenner Sees America’s Flight from Truth as a Benefit to Quasi-Narcissists like President Obama — Do You Agree?

© 2011 Peter Free

 

06 September 2011

 

 

Is President Obama or American culture a proper subject for Shakespeare?

 

President Obama’s lack of integrity interests me.  I have alluded to his suitability for Shakespearean characterization.

 

However, American culture — being larger and more consequential — is probably better suited to Shakespeare’s genius for tragic insight.

 

Opinion writer Michael Brenner seems to think so.

 

 

The President’s narcissist-like behavior characterizes his political colleagues and our culture, generally

 

Today, Michael Brenner explained what’s going on in American society, using the President’s values-absent performance as an example.

 

Here are some extracts:

 

Obama has unmoored the Democratic Party from its foundations . . . .

 

Its future is that of ad hoc assemblage of hustlers and special interests whose sole claim to govern will be that it is not the amalgamated Tea/Republican Party.

 

Obama, by this Oedipus-like act of patricide, has also betrayed the country that voted for an enlightened leader with a social conscience . . . .

 

[H]is unbecoming traits of personality are not his alone, although he does represent their distilled essence . . . .

 

Most striking is a behavior pattern that resembles closely the narcissistic syndrome -- even if he is not a clinical narcissist. A narcissist has no convictions other than a total dedication to his own gratification.

 

Narcissists believe everything they say -- at the moment they say it.

 

Narcissists take as given that they never dissemble or lie -- because to do so is to acknowledge that reality has an intolerably constraining claim on them.

 

Of course, this last is a feature of contemporary American political culture in general.

Facts are taken to be infinitely malleable, the very notion of truth is denied . . . .

 

One consequence is that public discourse is not anchored by common standards of honesty. It is a maelstrom of opinion, emotive outbursts, mythology and primal screams.

 

Accountability, therefore, ceases to exist.

 

The abject failure of the media to perform these functions to any reasonable degree is a hallmark of our times.

 

This amorphous environment is narcissist friendly terrain. It is permissive of twists and turns, leaves no record of what was done yesterday or the day before -- much less a year ago, and focuses only on the evanescent existential moment.

 

Case in point is the remarkably uncritical coverage that Obama has received from the supposedly responsible media.

 

© 2011 Michael Brenner, The Great Betrayal, Huffington Post (06 September 2011) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Putting Brenner’s statement into context

 

The point is not that President Obama failed liberal aspirations.  It is that he lied (and continues to lie) about who he is and what he wants to achieve.  In that calculation, the obstructionist imbecility of the Republican Party is irrelevant.

 

Brenner’s liberal-pole criticism of the President matches my centrist one.  Metaphorically, the President has demonstrated an undeveloped and undependable soul.  He represents the sub-mediocrity to which American institutions have sunk.

 

In fairness, I note that if anyone has an excuse for integrity-lacking chameleon-like behavior, the President does.

 

In a still-bigoted nation, President Obama could never have risen to his rank without fooling lots of people (including himself), most of the time.

 

Expecting him to change from Necessary Chameleon to a courageous and integrity-displaying leader seems too much to ask.  We generally remain who we are, especially if who we are got us somewhere successful.

 

And that is the core message.  It is our culture’s penchant for self-indulgent lies that predominantly creates and attracts self-aggrandizing leaders.  Not the reverse.

 

 

Our society spawns and rewards people with arguably rat-like souls

 

Money and fame have become American culture’s sole standards for “done good.”

 

Old fashioned concepts of integrity, honor, and personal sacrifice have mostly faded to irrelevance.

 

And too many of us act as if facts, evidence, and the historical record don’t exist.  The convenient oversight eliminates the very standards that permit us to define and measure excellence.

 

As a result, we trust hubristic and magical thinking in situations unsuited to both.  Claims of spirituality and religion are commonly used to conceal pure ignorance and our basest impulses.

 

Corporations, political institutions, and consumer culture share these gutter qualities.  It is not surprising that our leaders do the same.

 

 

The message? — Culture is us

 

Our personal characters and choices are reflected in what our culture has become.  Blaming President Obama, infuriating though he often is, is not the answer.  He represents our malaise, not its cause.

 

Looking more objectively at ourselves and our personal responsibility for the nation’s poor institutional performance is where we should start.