Obama & Mob Rule - What is the only way to break free? Imitatio Christi

Article link HERE by By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

Obama’s team sees America as a nation where might makes right; the will of the people as expressed through our visionary leader Obama is all that matters. An America without the restraint of power is dangerous. His arrogance towards the Constitution and our founders is astounding. But, it doesn’t matter to him because he received more votes.

Obama is using the mob-incitement tactics of his mentor, Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky. The flash point he used has justified citizen outrage over AIG bonuses. Now he has claimed for himself the right to fire people in private businesses. Using his new-media outreach program and his e-mail database of 13 million people, Obama is further attempting to influence policy changes through protests outside AIG offices. He has even organized targeted doorbelling activities in support of his plans.

Obama’s expansion of presidential powers should be very troubling to all Americans. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”

Legalized plunder is gaining popularity. In the words of Patrick Henry, “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” If freedom-loving Americans don’t take a stand, our precious liberties may be lost forever.

The last sentence really shows our weakness at critically understanding what is going on in the world today. The Brown's are likely more enlightened than our average political observers however most all of them are running without life support, such as what is revealed by the Judeo-Christian scriptures (and the help of a provocative French man-see link immediately below). In Brown's article they sense the mob being manipulated by Obama and yet their hope is in the mob turning on its leader in some secular "freedom-loving" concept. We have come a long way in observing the working of the mob but until we delve deeper into our mimetic propensity we just turn the mob in one way or the other. Below is another artilce - one of many on The Four Massketeer's side panel that highlight the work of René Girard.

René Girard: Stanford's provocative immortel is a one-man institution

On a societal level, such conflict seeks a release, and the outlet is a scapegoat. A third party—often an outsider, a foreigner, a woman, someone who is disabled, the king or president—is blamed and demonized for having caused the conflict. Scapegoats are not seen as innocent victims; they are seen as the guilty cause of the disorder. The calls mount for the sacrificial victim, and the mob itself creates a sense of harmony.

"Joining the mob is the thing that people don't realize. They feel the unity but don't interpret it as joining the mob," Girard said.

The mob prevails. The victim is killed, exiled, pilloried or otherwise dispensed with. Rivals reconcile, and peace and unity are restored to the community.

"If you scapegoat someone, it's a third party that will be aware of it," he said. "It won't be you. Because you will believe you are doing the right thing. You will be either punishing someone who is guilty or fighting someone who is trying to kill you, but you are never the one who is scapegoating."

If we are to break from the mob it will be through the imitatio Christi. In Chapter 7 of Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture Girard says that

"we are free because we can truly convert ourselves at any time. In other words, we can refuse to join the mimetic unanimity. ...[C]onversion means to become aware that we are persecutors. It means choosing Christ or a Christlike individual as a model for our desires."