In the Book of Genesis, there’s a story of the ancient people coming together after the Great Flood. They assembled in the Land of Shinar. They were the direct descendants of Noah. They spoke one language. But they were corrupt in God’s eyes. They decided to build a great tower allowing them ascension to heaven without needing to follow God’s law.
The purpose was to declare they were God’s equal and had no need to follow his law. They could simply climb the tower and be in heaven. They’d become a power separated from their need to obey God’s law. Their hubris, refusal to account to God and the failure to “go forth and multiply” led God to decide he would scatter the people to the far reaches of the world and “confound” their language.
This is an over-simplified statement of the works in Genesis but it has a parallel to modern politics.
I spoke about “Babel Rousing” as to Barack Obama’s oratory and public speaking and his need to “swallow” the act of compromise after the Mid-term Elections. Now I’ll explain the allusion.
Obama came to power with a near-picture perfect Madison Avenue attack on the political status quo in America. He took America’s goals, aspirations and natal cry issued by America long ago, re-packaged them as “Hope & Change” and marketed them to the American public. He found an issue all people could relate to, but directed the conversation toward being one without substance. He confused the issues regularly. He didn’t work with issues, he didn’t speak on policies; he didn’t nurture a common sense approach to modern government. He spoke to ideals without addressing the need for practical solutions to complex problems.
The campaign went from building a government more responsive to the drives, wishes and desires of the American people, to business as usual. Bigger government controls the people. The depth of that control, and the language dysfunction, became evident. He rejected the American people’s voice and will concerning Health Care, Bail-outs, and Stimulus packages damaging the American economy for generations to come. He underestimated the people’s intelligence.
The President wasn’t speaking the same language as millions of Americans. He refuses to obey the Constitution; his hubris and desire to “ascend to the heavens” without showing obedience to the will of the people created a situation similar to the Tower of Babel. This came from his drive (as well as that of other Democratic Party leaders) to enhance their reputations and placement in history. That’s the sense of Babel Rousing.
The constituent elements of any stories drawing parallels are always arguable. But it appears this case is on target. We have a non-responsive group of people seeking ascendancy to levels of esteem they feel themselves worthy to inhabit (Congress and the President). They misperceive their power and forget how they arrived at where they are. There’s a belief nothing may disturb their sway over governmental systems.
And then the hammer falls.
Somebody with a bigger boot steps on their footprints in the sand obscuring their efforts and placing the history of their passing in jeopardy. Then the tide erases all traces of their passing. There are powers greater than the individual can argue with much of the time, and this is no different.
Modern political intercourse should involve interaction executed from a stance of mutual respect and understanding of your place in the conduct. Negotiation is the engine driving the process not the process controlling the drive from a position of numerical superiority. People simply must understand their position in the constructive process. Every part is responsive to the actions completed by others. Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Hoyer forgot that idea.
But in fairness, I must say Boehner, McConnell; Cantor et al must come to understand they and their party have been just as guilty of this type of misuse of power in the past. The American people have been inappropriately led to believe they are the masses playing follow the leaders. It’s not true at all.
The people are the leaders and the politicians need to understand it’s they who follow.
Thanks for listening
