On Mon, 19 Aug 2013 21:59:12 -0700, Michael Sylvester wrote:
Mike P took a shot at conservative republicans re an updated
version of Twain's faith perspective.However,President Obama
seemed to have issued a statement about some folks clinging on
to their guns.This seems to be more than political.
Just a couple of points:
(1) I have no idea what you are talking about above. Given
that Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens considered the U.S. Congress
to be a group of criminals, one wonders whether you think that
such a position is (a) just a social statement and not a political
statement, (b) just a political statement and not a social statemet,
(c) both a social and political statement (i.e., politicians can't be
trusted and are better off in prison, especially those with "wide stances"
and fondness of hiking the Appalachian trail). Then again, perhaps
you did not really think this through.
(2) Let's just go over that quote Twain had Pudd'nhead Wilson's
say:
|There are those who scoff at the schoolboy, calling him frivolous and
|shallow: Yet it was the schoolboy who said "Faith is believing what you
|know ain't so."
|--Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.
One interpretation of this statement is that most people would not listen
to a schoolboy because a schoolboy lacks the worldly experience to
talk meaningfully about the important issues confronting it (thought today
they are probably the technical wizards some parents go to get their
computer/smartphone/other electronic gadgets to work properly)
yet at least one schoolboy has the wisdom to understand that "faith"
does not require evidence (in fact, eschews evidence) and can be
maintained even in the face of contradictory evidence (e.g., climate
change deniers). The only way to make this quote better is to
put it at the end of the tale of the boy who pointed out that the emperor
has no clothes -- supporters of the emperor would hasten to say
"Yes he does, if you believe).
(3) Somehow you have connected you original quote to something
that Obama once said. I don't know what the point is you are trying
to make because (a) you don't provide the quote or original source
that a person could examine instead of relying upon your say so,
and (b) somehow Obama's use of the word faith is connected to
Twain's though what you are asserting is unclear and obtuse (that's
for "Shawshank Redemption" fans). As a public service, let me provide
that Obama's quote and in the context in which it was presented from
and article on the Slate website that compared these comments by
Obama with Mitt Romney's infamous "47%" comments. Here is
what Obama said:
|"We've got a couple of folks who are heading out to Pennsylvania
|to go door to door with us. And the question was: What kinds of
|questions should I expect them to get? . The places where we are
|going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel
|most cynical about government. The people are misapprehend-I
|think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our-in this
|contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes
|it to "white working-class don't want to work-don't want to vote
|for the black guy." That's-there were intimations of that, there was
|an article in the Sunday New York Times today that kind of implies
|that it's sort of a race thing. .
|
|"Here's what it is: In a lot of these communities in big industrial states
|like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long,
|they feel so betrayed by government, that when they hear a pitch that is
|premised on not being cynical about government, there's a part of them
|that just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by-it is true that when
|it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then
|that adds another layer of skepticism. (Audience laughs.)
|
|"But-so the questions you're most likely to get are going to be: 'Well,
|you know, what's this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?'
|And what they want to hear is-you know, so we'll give you talking points
|about what we're proposing: to close tax loopholes and roll back, you know,
|the top-the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's going to give tax
|breaks to middle-class folks, and we're going to provide health care for
|every American. You know, we'll have a series of talking points.
|
|"But the truth is that our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can
|make progress when there's no evidence of that in their daily lives. You go
|into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio-like a lot of small
|towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and
|nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration
|and the Bush administration. And each successive administration has said
|that somehow these communities are going to regenerate. And they have
|not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to
guns or
|religion, or antipathy toward people who aren't like them, or
anti-immigrant
|sentiment, or, you know, anti-trade sentiment [as] a way to explain their
| frustrations.
|
|"Now, these are in some communities. You know, I think what you'll find
|is that people of every background-there are going to be a mix of people.
|You can go in the toughest neighborhood, you know, working-class
|lunch-pail folks, and you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into
|places where you'd think that I'd be very strong, and people will just be
|skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what
|you're doing."
From:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/09/romney_s_47_percent_vs_obama_s_cling_to_guns_or_religion_which_gaffe_is_worse_.single.html
(NOTE: the transcript of Obama's speech came from the Huffington Post
website).
So, Professor Sylvester, what is your point?
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
P.S. The Slate article makes the point that Romney's comments were much
worse because he just wrote off the 47% from the "Taker" or moocher class
while Obama expressed believed that even among those who cling to their
guns and religious faith might be people who would be supportive of his
position. Now that's a teachable moment.
---
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