Monday, January 28, 2008

THROW THE BUMS OUT

I have this vague memory of my mom explaining the meaning of the phrase, “Throw the bums out.” I was probably five years old.

She said that no matter who’s in charge, the people eventually get tired of them and want to “Throw the bums out.”

The same Sisyphean paradigm is central to Kenneth Burke’s The Philosophy of Literary Form.



It’s a cycle that repeats on it’s own.

In this context the Obama phenomenon finally makes sense to me.

When Obama promised a new kind of politics, I wanted to think he found a way to break the vicious Circle of Strife. I was of course skeptical.

Hope, I realize, is not a promise, it’s just a phase in a familiar, mostly dreary cycle.




Now I feel comfortable with what a vote for Obama means: Throw the bums out!

Bring the new bums in!

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

love that punchline! r.s.

Civic Center said...

Now you've got it.

janinsanfran said...

Nice. :-)

Anonymous said...

Your reading of Hopkins may be deplorable, but, my gawd, your reading of Obama 3.5 years ago was dead on!

Well done, sir!