I think I shall hurl.
Disagree with me? Fine. Just watch this video, and imagine the kiddies are singing instead about Bush.
And this ain’t any damned better.
UPDATE: These are apparently the lyrics:
Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Barack Hussein Obama
Song 2:
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say “hooray!”
Hooray, Mr. President! You’re number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!
Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country’s economy number one again!
Hooray Mr. President, we’re really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!
So continue —- Mr. President we know you’ll do the trick
So here’s a hearty hip-hooray —-
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
11 Responses to “Children Praising Dear Leader”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
It literally scares me almost to death that I have to make this comparison. But the first thing this video put me in mind of was how Austria, particularly the schoolchildren, welcomed Hitler as a savior with parades and flowers. In the desperate hope that I was grasping at straws, I looked for songs like this about Dubya, but the only ones I saw about him all focused on protesting his policies or saying how much they hated him. By contrast, there was a website that had complied 800 songs… yes, 800 of them, on how wonderful a person Obama was and what we should be doing for him and the nation.
I have a class in an hour and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make it through without making some sort of scene or emotional outburst. It’s not just this; since last July I have been reading and seeing so many things that confirm societal trends similar to this one that there are people in my life whom I once liked and admired that I am now practically unable to speak to. Not because I suddenly dislike them or think they are crazy, but because I know that if I opened my mouth about some of what I’ve been thinking in the last few months, the first words out of their mouths would be that *I* was. I always prided myself on the conviction that if it were ever flatly required of me to stand for truth against popular opinion, that I would side with truth and damn the consequences; now I’m wondering how some of the people in history whom we honor for doing just that managed to survive. Sanity is not statistical, truth is not up for public policy debate, but that’s *really* hard to remember when you start to realize (with fear and horror) that Rand was not mistaken or exaggerating when she wrote “The Age of Envy”, she was describing something that was really happening and speaking only the literal truth.
> I have a class in an hour and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make it through without making some sort of scene or emotional outburst.
Make sure to have a videocamera going. No point in wasting a perfectly good outburst.
> there are people in my life whom I once liked and admired that I am now practically unable to speak to
I’m seeing more and more of that… friendships lost because some people can’t stand to hear any ill spoken of Dear Leader.
> now I’m wondering how some of the people in history whom we honor for doing just that managed to survive.
Many of them *didn’t.*
Much as I disliked Clinton and his polcies, and much as I despised many of Bush’s spending policies, there was never this sort of cult of personality around them.
“Make sure to have a videocamera going. No point in wasting a perfectly good outburst.”
Sorry to deprive you, but the class actually helped calm me down (thank god). It was a grad-level engineering class in optimal control; if there’s one thing that is firmly grounded in reality and cannot tolerate the primacy of emotions or whims, it’s engineering.
“Much as I disliked Clinton and his polcies, and much as I despised many of Bush’s spending policies, there was never this sort of cult of personality around them.”
I was not of legal age to vote until 2003 (which tells you my age), so I don’t really have much to say about Clinton. But when it comes to Bush and Obama… agreed. A president who’s making shoddy (or even terrible) decisions is one thing… when the mainstream is either protesting vehemently or at least ambivalent about it. But this… this has the potential to become really bad.
> if there’s one thing that is firmly grounded in reality and cannot tolerate the primacy of emotions or whims, it’s engineering.
Indeed so. While Iowa State U in the early ’90’s might not have been a Berkeley-esque nightmare of leftist dumbassery, it certain had its share of causeheads and general leftthink. But as soon as you stepped into one of the engineering buildings, you were in Rationaltown.
The best part: the “Town Aerospace Engineering Building” was a squat, blocky brick structure with no aerodynamics or concession to aesthetics whatsoever. The next building over, and, indeed, the only building near it, was an (“the?” it’s been a while) art building. It was tall, swoopy and aerodynamic. And every morning, a motley group of sleep deprived younguns would go stomping along the sidewalk… until the point where it diverged. The “colorful,” largely female group went left into Art, the bland, largely male group went right into Aero E.
The two groups didn’t interact all that much. The one time, the ONE TIME, the Iowa State Space Society decided to bring the artmonsters in on a project, it was for an outreach/activity/thingie for local children. We asked them if they could build a large table-sized “moon colony” for the kids to work around (forget exactly what the deal was). The night beforehand, I got an urgent call from the guy running the project, he needed my help moving it from the art to the aero e building. He repeatedly cautioned me to Not Lose My Temper.
The artmonsters had made a travesty. Not only a travesty, it was fricken’ nightmarishingly dangerous and freakin’ *lazy.* It was the right size, I think a 4X6 or 4X8 sheet of 2-inch thick styrofoam… which they had randomly jamed bits of metal (rebar, nails, wire, etc), plastic and glass into. Remember, this was to be a “moon colony” for children to essentially play with. It looked like a junkyard out of a Clive Barker movie.
Needless to say, we had a minor “accident” while moving it. “Ooops, I seem to have dropped and utterly destroyed it. Oh, well, shovel that shit into the garbage can. We have eight hours to do it our own damned selves,” which we did.
The “artists” were on the whole leftwinger causeheads, easily swayed by appeals to emotion. The engineers were on the whole rightwingers, who generally kinda laughed at the sort of appeals to emotion that the causeheads were constantly yammering on about on campus.
In engineering, there is a Right answer, and a whole universe of Wrong Answers. But in art… hell, I used to be kinda good-ish at some forms of art, and the thing I learned is that There’s No Wrong Art. Which is a piss-poor worldview to have when there really are wrong answers out there.
One other thing: while the opinions of male engineers on matters of attractiveness have never exactly been held in the highest esteem in our culture, it was almost universally accepted that the small percentage of Engineer Chicks were vastly more appealing than the Art Chicks.
> I was not of legal age to vote until 2003
Oh, thank you. Now I feel even older than I did when I woke up screaming this morning.
“Indeed so. While Iowa State U in the early ’90’s might not have been a Berkeley-esque nightmare of leftist dumbassery, it certain had its share of causeheads and general leftthink.”
You went to Iowa State? I am at UIUC. In the aerospace program, actually; I’ll be doing my thesis under Bruce Conway, if you’ve heard of him.
“But as soon as you stepped into one of the engineering buildings, you were in Rationaltown.”
For a long time I bought into the idea that, while math and science were grounded in reality, the arts and humanities were grounded in… well… humanity, and there were therefore no absolutely right or wrong answers. Like Newton said, “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” My justification for my own set of ethics was therefore along the lines of, “Well, there may not be any *absolutely* right answers, but some answers are certainly better than others, so I’ll just pick the best I can come up with and not worry about it too much lest it drives me fruitcake-batty. It was probably the best thing I could have picked with that set of premises, but it was still a compromise and eventually something had to give. Thankfully it was the idea of moral relativism that was eventually discarded, and not the idea of an absolute reality.
“One other thing: while the opinions of male engineers on matters of attractiveness have never exactly been held in the highest esteem in our culture, it was almost universally accepted that the small percentage of Engineer Chicks were vastly more appealing than the Art Chicks.”
😉
“Oh, thank you. Now I feel even older than I did when I woke up screaming this morning.”
*bows* I do my best.
You know we’re screwed when our President has Hugo Chavez and Kadafi in his fan club. >:(
It’s interesting how engineering and the hard sciences seem to attract conservatives while “art” seems to attract those of a more liberal bent. I’ve worked with both groups and it’s uncanny. The people I work with now (engineers for a defense contractor) well, a conceiled carry license is practically a requirement.
> You went to Iowa State?
So I seem to recall.
> Thankfully it was the idea of moral relativism that was eventually discarded, and not the idea of an absolute reality.
“Moral relativism” can mean many things. To my mind, morality *is* relative. Is it wrong to steal? How about… is it wrong for the CIA to steal Iranian nuclear secrets? And the all-tiem favorite… is it wrong to kill?
“Right and wrong” are inheirently fuzzy concepts. “Is it wrong for the government to tax income at a 50% level,” for instance. But the *results* of those actions can be reduced to facts. “Does the government get increased *revenue* if it taxes at that high rate” is the sort of question that can be answered with actual numbers.
“So I seem to recall.”
I meant it as a rhetorical question, used as a lead-in to explain that we share a profession. I wasn’t trying to be rude or to denigrate your alma mater.
““Moral relativism” can mean many things. To my mind, morality *is* relative. Is it wrong to steal? How about… is it wrong for the CIA to steal Iranian nuclear secrets? And the all-tiem favorite… is it wrong to kill?”
Morality can become very complex, and right answers usually depend on the circumstances of the question. That doesn’t necessarily make the basic principles of morality relative, or mean that they are not based in reality rather than emotional whim.
> I wasn’t trying to be rude or to denigrate your alma mater.
Nor was it taken as such. Calm yourself, woman. It’s just that at my advanced age, memories as far back as college can be muddled and unreliable. Where’s my Social Security? Get off my lawn!
>Nor was it taken as such.
Okay, good. Text is not the best way to convey emotions; sometimes stuff gets distorted in print.
>Calm yourself, woman.
😛