We Don’t Need Another Hero

posted at 5:07 pm on July 8, 2009 by Doctor Zero
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One of the stranger moments in Michael Jackson’s strange funereal was Al Sharpton pounding the podium and screaming “He never gave up!” over and over again. It was disturbing to hear the ongoing deification of an eccentric pop star turn his wake into a revival meeting. Of course, some of this is simply due to the Sharpton style. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Al Sharpton has to chant robotic slogans and try to rouse the rabble. It doesn’t matter that some of the rabble ponied up three thousand bucks for scalped tickets.

Many observers are outraged that a pedophile was given this kind of heroic sendoff, or puzzled that a popular entertainer who was buried in a golden sarcophagus would be transformed into a civil-rights figure. It’s the latest example of liberal culture’s insatiable hunger for heroes to worship. In this case, the goal was to build Jackson into a heroic figure, so they could bask in his reflected glory.

Of course, the paramount example of the Left’s hero worship is Barack Obama, described by breathless liberals with the kind of embarrassing, servile devotion that ancient kings used to demand from their courtiers. Everyone has their favorite examples of blind Obama worship from “reporters.” Mine is when Evan Thomas, an editor at Newsweek, described Obama as “standing above the country, above the world, as sort of God.”

Obama is not the first liberal leader to receive fawning devotion. Bill Clinton was constantly described as a supernova of white-hot charisma, the biggest star in any room he entered. Like other liberal titans, he towered above the petty restraints of conventional morality. Just as Michael Jackson voluptuaries prefer not to dwell on those sleep-overs with little boys, Clinton was given a pass on sexual harassment, by an adoring feminist movement that had spent the previous decade building sexual harassment into the second worst sin in American life, after racial discrimination. Liberals are consistent in their belief that their leaders are beyond the restrictions they insist the rest of us should submit to. This is why a crowd of “environmental activists” is happy to have Al Gore burn a thousand gallons of jet fuel, descending from the sky in his private jet to lecture them about the evils of fossil fuel consumption, then bid him a fond farewell as he returns to a mansion that consumes more energy than the starship Enterprise. Liberals don’t reluctantly accept the wealth and luxury surrounding their heroes as necessary indulgences, to be done away with when the free and fair socialist paradise of equality is finally implemented in full. They think their political and cultural leaders belong in those private jets and limousines.

Liberal hero worship is not confined solely to American politicians, as you can see from their thrilling fifty-year romance with Fidel Castro. Many a liberal pulse quickened when Hugo Chavez handed a copy of that ridiculous socialist propaganda tract to Barack Obama. This is not a recent phenomenon, but an integral part of the liberal psyche, all the way back to the beginnings of the modern progressive and socialist movements. Readers of Jonah Goldberg’s excellent Liberal Fascism will find the sort of swooning praise deployed on behalf of Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, or Benito Mussolini quite familiar. Take any of H.G. Wells’ encomiums to FDR, replace Roosevelt’s name with “Obama,” and you could be reading an Associated Press dispatch from the 2008 presidential campaign. You’ll even notice the same childish obsession with the Great Man’s physical prowess – politely subdued in FDR’s case. It’s always been odd to hear his media sycophants declare the passably fit, cigarette-smoking Obama to be some sort of physical paragon, or gush over his wife as a staggering beauty, whose radiance obscures fashion models unlucky enough to be caught sharing a stage with her. Everyone wants competent leadership in government, and hopes the candidate who receives their vote will be a person of exceptional character and achievement. The Left takes it much further than that. The Left needs its leaders to be supermen in body, mind, and soul.

The modern Left does not require anything resembling the traditional understanding of “heroism” from its Great Men. Media liberals were profoundly unmoved by the personal courage and military valor of John McCain, Bob Dole, or the elder Bush. They only made a big deal about John Kerry’s service in Vietnam because it was politically useful to do so. Their lack of genuine understanding about Vietnam and military honor left them flummoxed by the appearance of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The heroism of Brian Bradshaw, the brave soldier killed in Afghanistan on the same day Michael Jackson died, will not earn any fiery, table-pounding speeches from liberals, praising him for “never giving up.”

Hero worship has obvious strategic usefulness to the architects of Big Government. A group united around a totem, like Michael Jackson, forms a bloc of dependable voting power and popular support. The leaders of such a group can sell this support to a political party, which views the arrangement as a bargain. The fabulous wealth and power ceded to the leadership of organized racial groups, labor unions, or other political collectives is a small price to pay for the huge bundles of votes they deliver in return. The sight of large crowds, gathered in adoration of a popular figure who reinforces their sense of solidarity, is a welcome sight to those who package their votes for sale. To collectivist politicians, it’s like watching the value of a stock market investment rise… if you can remember the bygone days of last year, when stock market investments were known to do that occasionally.

Hero worship is more than just a strategic consideration for liberals, however. It is part of their psychology, an inevitable consequence of the reasoning that leads to their belief in the all-powerful State. Liberals believe their political views place them on a higher moral and intellectual plane than average people – only the wise stewardship of a powerful government, led by enlightened liberals, can produce a prosperous and just society. Since liberals see themselves as an elite, they need to view their leaders as super-elites. If the State is the supreme repository of moral virtue and economic wisdom, then the masters of the State must be supremely virtuous and wise. For the same reason, the leaders among liberalism’s enemies must be unspeakably stupid and vile. A brotherhood of intellectual giants can only accept a colossus as their king, and their enemies could only be monsters.

A culture that has been taught to hate the old-fashioned varieties of achievement is hungry for someone to admire. Athletes, entertainers, and Democrat politicians can safely enjoy their millions without the slightest hint of liberal censure, because they didn’t make their money through crass activities like building companies, creating jobs, or producing goods to meet consumer needs. Michael Jackson was “elected” to his position as a wealthy celebrity. The ballots were the millions of records he sold. Our society flatters itself for its independence and egalitarianism, but it still has a deep-seated longing for royalty, and it was sad to see the King of Pop pass away. Al Sharpton has some ideas about what to do with his crown, now that he isn’t using it any more.

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