Obamism, Simply Another Cult of Materialism

VDH has an insight here, but it is incomplete, because VDH doesn't completely define "Obamism" as the cult it really is, which is another form of mere materialism.

These true believers, then, don’t really care that the Blue Dogs (if such really exist) bite the dust in 2010, if Harry Reid goes up in smoke, or indeed, if Barack Obama is reelected. Instead, they will institutionalize an agenda that will affect America for generations, move it sharply to the left, and earn a spot in the academic pantheon of American heroes.

...for the true believer, it is all about the self, and the sense of the self—and damn all other considerations.

It's possible, I suppose, that Obama (and let's not forget the enablers: Propagandist Axelrod and Enforcer Rahmsputin) can be that narcissistic. On the other hand, it's difficult to imagine that all of them and their enablers are so energetic--so morally righteous--about 'Obamism' that it is the real, impelling, force behind the cult.

It is far more than mere Obamism. It is a cult, but it's not about Obama, nor his predecessors-in-kind, TR, Wilson, FDR, Carter, et. al. The debate is theological, not political, and while Obamism will go the way of any other cult of personality, the underlying theology, materialism, will not.

Obama is a practical atheist, one of many; there is no God but the State, in his mind, and it is the State which brings about salvation. I've called it 'immanentizing the Eschaton,' which is homely shorthand for bringing about the Second Coming without Christ. It's a trap into which many have fallen to one degree or another, including a large number of Catholic Bishops, priests, and bureaucrats and an overwhelming number of mainline Protestant leaders and their apparatchiks, and it rests on the foundation of materialism rather than the Judaeo-Christian tradition. John Paul II exhorted Eastern Europeans to avoid Western materialism when they were freed from the Communist materialism-variant. He had good reason for that.

What we have in Obamism is a cult, but it is merely a perversion of the same cult which underlies unfettered capitalism (and I use the term 'unfettered' with a reason.) Narcissism is a manifestation of materialism, and narcissism, like materialism, is endemic in all of society. They must go together as integral parts of that 'immanentized eschaton.'

But while the typical capitalist advocate at least recognizes the need for 'fetters' (wage/hour/safety laws) and/or some other form of amelioration such as personal or private charitable works and institutions, the Obamism variant sees no need for personal or private charity; instead, the State will provide satisfaction of all wants; the State will lead us through the valley of darkness to green pastures. (Going back up that trail far enough brings you to the cult's logical starting point of atheism.)

But the practical-atheist/materialist State will not--cannot--'restore one's soul;' thus, the vague discomfort and unrest which haunts the reaches of ObamaLand which are outside the Beltway.

Of course, the cult of materialism (unfettered capitalism variant) produced the same unrest and discomfort. Bay View has a landmark dedicated to that unrest. The AFL-CIO exists due to that unrest.

In the end, St. Augustine was right: one's soul cannot rest until it rests in the Lord.

There. That's a long way around to the actual Christmas message, no? Christ, unlike any materialist of either variation, gave Himself as a gift to us. Neither Statism nor Capitalism does that, for they ignore the person--and God--by default.