They’re actually marching around and around inside a giant stadium before settling in to cheer their leader.

Cheering throngs, stadiums, a solitary figure grandly isolated before the teeming masses.

Three more images to avoid in any propaganda piece.

The second I saw the plane wing in the opening image I thought “Triumph of the Will.” It turned me off the whole ad.

I’m sorry but if you want to make a political propaganda ad, there are some images you just have to avoid. That image is one of them. And it isn’t because I immediately thought Obama=Hitler. Rather, that image is so well known and so closely associated with one of the most famous propaganda films of all time, it instantly brings to mind Obama=propaganda.

Of course, we all know the ad is designed to manipulate us but we set aside that knowledge to enjoy being stirred by it. We want the rush. It’s like suspension of disbelief when watching a movie. We all know the superhero’s ability to fly is impossible but we get off on seeing it anyway.

Right up until we see the wires holding him up. Then it’s all over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9ubMQX7WE

it was on huffpo awhile ago but it’s good

You’re right, this isn’t about Obama the man, it is about us. Obama’s image represents an idea, just as the images of MLK or Che Guevara represent ideas. To many people, Obama represents transparency in government, democracy, a clean environment and care for the least among us (etc, etc, etc).

You’re right in suggesting that one man cannot be perfect in all ways (except for the idea of Jesus, etc) so there is a danger in idolizing a human. We risk the danger of following him no matter what he does.

That said, this is an election. Plenty of people are proud to show their support for Senator Obama. This does not mean that we are cultists, rather it means that we are patriots, that we believe in our candidate and that we care about the future of this country.

Peace.
Obama/Biden ’08

I’m sure you’re right, simply because no other explanation makes sense. It’s just a coincidence I would never in a million years have expected. That opening sequence is reasonably well known, and I would have expected at least one of the people who put this together to have made the connection.

Look, it really doesn’t matter. I understand that this is a supercharged context to be having this discussion; I will drop the issue. I was simply baffled when I first saw the video. You have to admit, it’s a pretty bizarre coincidence.

Beyond Satire

We have met the enemy, and they are us.

Pretty cool video.

Pretty cool video.

As long as we’re hijacking this thread, let me just see if you’ve answered my questions from that earlier thread….

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2008/09/29/take-the-fight-to-them/#comments

Ohhhh… you didn’t. What a fucking surprise.

No.

Come on.

I just find it odd. I mean, here you have a video that bears a more than passing resemblance to Triumph of the Will to begin with–it’s a film centered around a speech at a massive political rally. To open it with a shot out the window of an airplane just seems to be inviting trouble.

For the curious, the link in my name goes to the Intro sequence from Triumph of the Will.

There’s something about masses of people responding to a great speaker — and Obama is right up there with the best — that evokes something deep in anyone who’s watching. And I don’t mean in a Triumph of the Will kind of way: that and everything like it evokes something deep, all right, but it’s galaxies away from the Obama phenomenon.

Churchill, FDR, JFK, and now Barack Obama, all had a gift for articulating the popular angst and popular will, showing the way ahead and inviting — not demanding, not ordering, but inviting — their people to join them in the great struggle ahead.

To turn away from a call to arms like that, you’d have to be a pretty strange kind of human being indeed.