As Barack Obama arrived on the national political scene, the ancien regime media looked at him with a sort of awe. Striding into the Oval Office with a Blackberry and a growing list of followers on Facebook, he was touted as a new, "connected", "21st century" kind of president. Just as many parents today marvel at the lightning-fast pace of their tech-savvy children's lives, the media and many others looked at Obama with starry-eyed wonder.
Obama talked of "staying connected" with the American people, as if he would spend each day browsing text messages from concerned citizens. We were expected to feel closer to him after becoming his "friend" on Facebook. However, everyone knows (or should know) that Obama's Blackberry and Facebook account will bring him no closer to the American people. It is all empty symbolism, yet it has taken on the weight of reality to an astounding degree. This sort of symbolic play, insignificant as it may seem, is a glimpse into the basic nature of Obama's appeal.
Here was a man who in only a few short years had gone from obscurity to unprecedented political celebrity. His historic, fairy tale ascent to the presidency captured the nation's imagination, and he came to embody the compelling and much-repeated idea of "change". During the final stretch of the disastrous Bush administration, Obama's campaign worked to transform the American peoples' angst and dissatisfaction into faith in the ability of one man to change everything. Without a doubt, they succeeded -- but how?
In 1985, French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's treatise Simulacra and Simulation theorized a transformation of our society, in which our world became so saturated with symbols, images, and signs that the reality on which these signs were based ceased to exist, or to be relevant to our lives. In explaining the idea of the simulacrum, Baudrillard related a fable by Jorge Luis Borges, in which a map was created of a great empire. Over time, the map became so detailed that it covered the whole territory of the empire, with every detail. Finally, when the empire collapsed, only the map remained, to take on a life of its own. The sign, the symbol, the simulation, had replaced the reality and become the simulacrum.
Today, our world is so saturated with the signs and symbols of the media, the endless deluge of information and propaganda from millions of sources, that Baudrillard's words seem more prescient than ever. From these myriad sources spring forth countless symbols and spectacles -- ideas lost in a sea of abstractions. What Obama is and what he actually does means little compared to what he is thought to be. Reality is irrelevant -- at least in politics.
While Obama is certainly not the first politician to be elected through the liberal use of vague and inspiring signs and symbols, his immersion in the simulacra is unmatched. He has constructed an image of a man with all the answers, an almost mythical hero capable of any feat, and he has convinced the American people that he is this man. What is more, he almost certainly believes himself to be that man.
The most unreal, or as Baudrillard would say, hyperreal part of his ascent to the presidency is that he convinced us of this without actually doing anything. He did not demonstrate courageous leadership, astounding expertise, or awe-inspiring abilities. However, the symbol of Barack Obama became great enough that the man -- the reality -- was ignored and lost entirely. Perhaps for the first time in history, the American people have elected a myth -- a modern, hyperreal fantasy mistaken for reality -- as their leader.
Intentionally or not, even Obama's rallying cries betray his utter unreality. "Yes we can!" is an empty affirmation of empowerment, without referent. It is left to the consumer to inject concrete meaning, according to their abstract desires. "Change we can believe in." is the faith that belief in the idea of Obama will create positive change -- that thought is reality.
As if to affirm the completely hyperreal nature of our modern world, Obama's election instantly transformed attitudes toward America throughout the world. The mere anticipation of his presidency was said to usher in a new era in American history. It did not matter that Obama had done nothing. Our world, so immersed in the simulacra of the internet, television, newspapers, and radio, made the unreal into the real.
Baudrillard said, "The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none." That Obama had done nothing, shown no mastery that would allow him to solve all our ills, was irrelevant. This was not the truth. The truth, generally agreed upon, was that the idea of Obama had become more real than the reality, and that the world would act in accordance with this simulacrum. The myth of Obama was built on clouds, yet it proved that it can move mountains. Welcome to the hyperreal.
