Obama’s speech highlighted the fact that voters have a pretty clear choice to make in the fall: Hope v. Fear; Change v. Stagnation; and Future v. Past.
Since Hope plays such a central role in Obama’s campaign, maybe it’s appropriate to remind folks of the myth of Pandora. Prometheus had stolen fire from the Gods and given it to humans, royally pissing off Zeus and the others. Zeus decided to send a punishing gift. Hephaestus, smith of the Gods, created the first woman, Pandora. She was sent to the world with a mystery box. Curiosity killed the cat, and she opened the box, releasing all manner of ills into the world: greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining, etc. When those had escaped the box to plague mankind, only hope remained. The world is full of fear and other evils, but we have also been given the gift of hope to deal with these things.
Keeping with the Greek mythology a moment, in a world where war is to some extent inevitable, we have to determine what kinds of warriors we are going to be. Are we going to be clever, shield-bearing warriors in the mold of Athena; or are we going to be violent, sword waving warriors in the mold of Ares? Clearly we should choose the former. Athena was also the goddess of science and technology. She was championed by the clever Odysseus.
In short, we have to be clever, hopeful, and forward looking; not violent, fearful, and backward looking. The choice is clear.
Those Doric columns really got to you, eh?
I deserved that.
Thank whatever deities involved that they did not resort to first use of Ionics…
Flashing back to a high school Humanities class where I learned of Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian columns. I can’t immediately recall the difference, and I don’t know that I ever understood why it was important that I know about them.
Good post, but now I really have the urge to go listen to online radio from the Music Genome Project.
Enjoy it while you can.
Corinthian columns have the curly leaves.
Ionic columns have the curly tops.
Dorics don’t.
And now McCain nominates a woman with 1+ year of executive experience.
Wow.
She’s a pro-life, pro-Big Oil conservative who already has an ethics problem during her short time in office. Shouldn’t have much appeal for Obama leaners. Except for the fact that she has a vagina, which should appeal to some “Hillary Clinton Democrats”.
Should be interesting. I’m not all that in favor of having a 1+ year governor a heartbeat away from the presidency (of the oldest president in history)–her gynecologic attributes notwithstanding. Hopefully most reasonable people feel the same way.
I think she’s probably as strong a pick as McCain could’ve made under the circumstances. Ultimately, I don’t think it will make much of a difference because, let’s face it, Vice-Presidential candidates rarely do.
Presumably, we won’t be treated to the same kind of “Why didn’t McCain pick Huckabee to heal the party” story line that obsessed the networks with the Biden-not-Clinton pick.
T –
Interestingly, that 1 year + gives her more government executive experience than the other three jokers combined.
I really want to see the VP debate, now – hope they do more than one!