The Fruit of Revolution is Disappointment

The fruit of revolution is disappointment.

Every new President is a potential American mini-Revolution. The way time works lately, eight years in the White House may as well as be an dynastic empire.

The leader's zeitgeist is thrust permanently upon the nation, at first in specific policy and legislation, and then in the broad sweeping changes in cultural attitudes that overtake society at the end of the second term. It is as if each American citizen comes to adopt of a piece of the leader's soul and will, and plays it out by his or her thoughts and actions in the political and personal arena. More than any other president in history, Obama  has been conscious of this and used his time in the White House to an effect that rivals the greatest presidents in history.

Obama's presidency has been much more transformative than most people, even liberals, realize.  The country is barely recognizable from eight years ago, even as "nothing has changed."On the one hand, liberals very much want to believe Obama has been a massive success as President. It is important to many of them that he been seen as such by history. They want to be proud, but they also love humiliating conservatives.  Hah, told ya! It is partly just plain bullying, but it betrays an essential insecurity regarding their own belief system, that they need such external verification to feel righteous.

Barack Obama declared Coolest President of All Time by everyone who isn't a hateful bigot.

But at the same, many liberals can't be too celebratory about Obama because in their eyes, he has fulfilled only a small fraction of what his fans imagined the revolution was supposed to be about back in 2008. Hence the Bernie Sanders campaign, among other things.

This disappointment is very normal for all revolutions, but especially socialist ones. In socialism, each new "hit" of social justice produces increasingly less satisfaction. Socialism depends on an ongoing satisfaction of the adherents' need to feel as if change is happening, that the change is rectifying injustice, and that this change is being driven in part by their own part in a group advocacy. The problem is that this is always impossible to sustain. The feeling of righteousness is diminished each time, and every socialist revolution culminates with its adherents screaming for More!*

Obama has had an amazing run. We are living the a nation remade in his vision. In eight year, we are now seeing the ultimate expression of the Obama zeitgeist in what might be called the transgender/genderfluid bathroom freedom movement. In many ways, one can see the entire Obama presidency wrapped up in this particular issue, which he has chosen to make the focus of his remaining time in office.

Now a new revolution takes over. To Obama followers, it will be like waking from a dream just when it got interesting. In those waning seconds, one wishes the dream to continue but one knows one is waking.

One day the Trump revolution, if it plays out as it appears it will do, will produce many disenchanted early followers. Perhaps this is already at work in the Reddit war in the pro-Trump subreddits. But we have a long, long way to go to see what it was all about way back in the year 2016, when it first started.

*Historically only proven solution to cure this sense of inevitable ennui among followers is to make sure to collect all the weapons from everyone, and then use the monopoly of force by insiders to eliminate all voices of opposition. Death shuts people up. Moreover, mass human sacrifice has been proven as effective religious system to produce an amazing quietude in society over the short term.