President Obama, more meaning

Douglas Rushkoff on President Obama:

When there’s a big blackout in New York, especially during the summer, some people take it as a “cue” to start looting. It’s not that the blackout itself makes it significantly to break down store fronts; it’s not that the police are so very busy with the blackout. The lights going out is a cue to behave differently – to release the hidden potential for vandalism and long-repressed rage.

Likewise, the election of a black man to the presidency is a cue that something has changed. As my friend, Ari Wallach explained to me on my new radio show last night, it’s a kind of “shock and awe.” There’s a thoughtful, progressive and black president-elect on the cover of the New York Post. The cognitive dissonance this generates is an opportunity to reprogram. It’s what advertisers and social programmers try to do in pretty much every communication they make. It’s as big a disconnect and reconnect as 9-11 was, only constructive instead of destructive. A narrative is broken; another is born.

I had that same thought…on the morning of September 11, 2001 I realized that one event could change things for the worse and I felt concerned for the fragility of the narrative of who we are.   Likewise with Obama’s election I still feel the fragility in the narrative, but I’m encouraged that single events can have positive impacts too.

One last point about Obama for now…I was talking with my friend Dyane, a social entreprenuer and rapper from South Central LA about George Bush’s legacy.   He asked the question, what will Bush be known for>   In no time at all we had the answer: he was the last white President of the United States.