Perhaps it's fitting that the .99 sale of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" album on Amazon crashed their servers, or at least slowed them down. It's an apt metaphor for the way "born this way" rhetoric has crashed, or at least slowed down, gay and lesbian liberationist politics.
It's tempting to simply quote Eve Sedgwick and Michael Warner on this topic and leave it at that: they said it first and best. A politic built on an essentialistic conceptualization of sexual orientation (that is, the idea that one's sexual orientation is natural, established pre-self-awareness, and stable and unchanging) does not guarantee one success and cannot be certain to result in the type of outcomes that those employing it certainly seek to achieve. Of course, neither can one build on a social construction theory of sexuality. Neither argument guarantees that rights will be granted or that others will conceed on moral or rational grounds.
On the comics weblog The Savage Critics, Jeff Lester impressively uses comic lingo and the Sandman storyline as pretty spot-on political commentary. Go read his entry and come back to see my response to his excellent post:
I think that the way to tie it back into Sandman is that the entire work is that we create our own story, even when we insist that fate or forces outside of our control has driven us down a particular path not of our choosing (and for Morpheus, perhaps like Clinton, that path was to get out of the job). Like Morpheus, Clinton has to some degree had her narrative disrupted (historic change) by an outside force, but what has she done with that? She has gone defensive and negative largely, becoming more insular (like Morpheus), only showing hints of personality and likeability (are the lessons of Al Gore, a man supposedly charming, but deadly cold and humorless during his presidential bid, so soon forgotten?)
Some psychological research shows that positive candidates win. The more positive you authentically are and your message genuinely is (optimism can only be faked in short bursts), the more likely you are to be elected. I think this is where she has fallen down: Obama has stayed "above the fray" for the most part. Yes, he responds to attacks and does himself attack from time to time, but the delivery doesn't sound venomous like it does from Clinton. Hope may be the defining characteristic of leadership and Obama, less experience or not, seems more hopeful. People want to mock this (and Hillary did herself a huge disservice making fun of this, I think) but I think it's incredibly powerful.
I think you see this in Bush I v. Clinton I. Bush became sour and cynical and it hurt him. He became less personable, likeable, and optimistic.You are also right about the way information and news impacted the Clinton/Bush fight. The excellent book The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008 talks in-depth about the "freak show" the bloggers and the rise of Matt Drudge as a watershed movement that changed not just the way information about candidates was shared, but what kind of information was shared, and what was considered suitable information to share. TV news has since largely followed suit and some print news media as well. Certainly now a million politcal blogs and sites exist catering to everything from political gossip and speculation to partisan talking points to (rarely) balanced, informed information or analysis. Clinton, the book correctly is the best to handle the freak show (as is McCain on the other side).
It's a real potential weakness for Obama, the furies on his heels that he must learn to deal with without having his kingdom crumble around him. I think he has the potential to handle it okay, but am concerned for him in this respect unless he receives good guidance from the Clintons, should he be the nominee. (I don't think we'll still know this until convention, unless by some miracle he takes both Ohio and Texas, which doesn't seem likely at this point - maybe Texas).
As a running mate, Clinton would do well to pick Obama, but the reverse is not true. Running as a change agent, Obama would seem hypocritical picking Clinton (not that I think she would accept if offered). She would also alienate those independents that like Obama but hate her - Clinton is strongly polarizing in a way neither McCain or Obama is.A Veep Obama would help smooth out Clinton, however, an unify Democrats and draw some independents. I would be fearful that our society is not yet progressive enough, however, to vote in a woman-black man ticket.
Depression and worry run in my family. My beloved grandmother, now passed, was a notorious worrier. I particularly remember a time when she had to take a math class and make a certain score on a following test to keep her job when she was in her sixties. She fretted and worried for months about losing her job, only to make a really good score.
I, myself, am a pretty strong pessimist by nature. I can be woefully optimitic (and prefer to be this way) about many things, but I am particularly harsh on myself. It doesnt' matter how much success I have, I constantly believe in my own capacity to screw it up. To counter-balance this, it's nice to have a husband who strongly believe in my best and actually has a much better opinion of me than I have of myself (which, according to the research of Sandra Murray and others, is a key element to a happy marriage, so, yea, me I lucked up on that one).
Recent resarch seems to indicate that perhaps like a wart, worry is biological: inherited, genetic. Unrelated to this study, noted psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman has noted his belief that pessimism and optimism are both inhereted traits, at least partially. However, as Dr. Seligman has demonstrated and as this research back up, you can work to overcome those worrisome ruminations. You may continue to think about how your glass is half empty, but part of the strategy is to see what options are available for filling the glass up, instead of just fretting about your lack of water.
During a particularly low part of my life, I obsessed on a image that I've had in the back of my head for quite a long time. It's an image of my future that likes to pop up when I'm feeling really down: a picture of myself, quite aged, alone in my house, lonely except for about a dozen cats. A counselor looked at me as if I were stupid and said, "can you picture a different picture of your future? Can you see a future where you are surrounded by friends and people who care for you?" Well, sure, doc, but why would I want to?
See, now that's real pessimism for you. I can't say that I've put that bleak future away for good, but it actually was something of a revelation to consider a positive end to my life. If you're a natural optimist you probably think I am genuinely nuts at this point, but it actually took someone else to point this out to me.
Dr. Seligman outlines an ABCD technique not dissimilar to this approach that I have begun teaching to my students. I think it's highly valuable although I admit that it is probably too easy for my optimistic students and very difficult for my pessimistic students. I try to help by challenging negative thinking when I hear it from them, but I admit I feel like something of a hypocrite when I do. Still, it's about them, not me, so I plug away at it. I fully recommend that you take a look at either (or both really) of Dr. Seligman's books to learn more about his techniques. He also discusses the real, tangible, quantifiable benefits of optimism and the actual negative repercussions happen for pessimists. Optimistis actually go to the doctor less, have better health and live longer lives than pessimists. Of course the true pessimists says "good, let's get this all over as soon as possible."
storyline as pretty spot-on political commentary. Go read his entry and come back to see my response to his excellent post:
talks in-depth about the "freak show" the bloggers and the rise of Matt Drudge as a watershed movement that changed not just the way information about candidates was shared, but what kind of information was shared, and what was considered suitable information to share. TV news has since largely followed suit and some print news media as well. Certainly now a million politcal blogs and sites exist catering to everything from political gossip and speculation to partisan talking points to (rarely) balanced, informed information or analysis. Clinton, the book correctly is the best to handle the freak show (as is McCain on the other side).
