Me too. I count 25 according to the list, and about 40 according to the map in that article. Either way, pretty far from 130.
Nicely played!
Chris Matthews is doing a blurb on this right now. It’s almost surreal. Actually, it is surreal. I can’t even think of anything to say…
To quote Adam Serwer’s great response to the article:
I don’t see much else to D’Souza’s article other than to get the term “Kenyan anti-imperialist” out there in public discourse. It’s a lying, racist smear job, couched in some sort of pseudo-intellectual pretense. Shame on Forbes for publishing it.
In other words, Obama is kind of like one of those pesky, ignorant natives who for some reason are still restless about something that is just oh so passé.
And Gingrich, apparently, is lapping it up.
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So you think that Obama’s worldview isn’t significantly shaped by the ‘dreams from his father’? D’Souza is going on Obama’s own writings remember. He didn’t even mention the afrocentrist church he attended for 20 years.
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, you’re talking about the Barack Obama Sr. who was divorced from Mrs. Obama when their son was two, and who saw Barack II only once after that, correct?
Yeah, you might suspect that he would have therefore had little influence, but apparently that isn’t the case (I haven’t read the book, so it’s hard to assess D’Souza’s interpretation).
You might do a better job with your suppositions if you, um, read the frickin’ book.
What do you know that would make you say “apparently that isn’t the case”?
They think Obama is a cancer doctor?
I’ve read the book, and you’re wrong. And I don’t think there’s anything to this anticolonist charge either. It’s an update on the “blame America first” line of attack.
Ok, my understanding was that he was pretty inspired by his dad & tried to learn as much as possible about him. And given his intellectual influences, like Franz Fannon, Alinsky & Jeremiah Wright, how much of a stretch is it that he’d have the kind of anti-colonialist outlook described by D’Souza?
Obviously people can have numerous influences & their views evolve over time.
I’d like to know what the hell’s wrong with an anticolonialist outlook in the first place? I thought colonialism was bad…paternalistic, racist, etc. How is being anti-paternalist, anti-racist a bad thing?
You’re still wrong. Nevermind the claptrap about Obama being a radical leftist, this is not the subject of the book. The book is about his youth and his efforts to establish an identity of his own.
It isn’t (except maybe to people who think racism doesn’t exist). But the idea is that Obama is so obsessed with colonialism that he only sees the world with that in mind. I don’t see any evidence for that point of view.
So you believe that he wasn’t inspired by his dad & didn’t try to learn as much as possible about him?
What claptrap are you talking about? The influence of those figures; Wright, Alinsky & Fannon isn’t exactly denied by anyone is it?
Well, if I could steer this back around, it’s the quote in the OP that’s up for debate:
Is an “anti-colonialist worldview”–whatever that may be–necessarily incompatible with a competitive economic policy?
Having actually read his book (both of them, actually) I don’t need to have beliefs about its contents. Is he inspired by his father? I don’t see the evidence for any specific intellectual inspiration. His parents divorced when he was about 2 1/2 and he met his father once after that - he visited the family in Hawaii for a week, I think, when the president was 10. I guess you’ve already swallowed the implication that Obama sees his father as a victim of colonialism or a fighter against the imperialism West, and that this was a major influence on his life. In point of fact all of this is completely wrong (but so what? it’s a good yarn!). Obama Sr. is depicted as a very intelligent man with deep flaws, including an inability to get along with people. And to say the least he was a distant father. “Inspiration” can mean a lot of things, but beyond the fact that he was a bright guy who believed in civil service and in working to better yourself, I don’t see it.
You’re the first person I have ever heard assert that Fannon is an influence on Obama. I’ve heard Alinsky mentioned but usually it was in conjunction with comments about William Ayers.
Great; the Germans, Turks, Japanese and Koreans are all better for it.
The new colonialism doesn’t depend on navies or Marines to do its bidding, thats a bland tradesman’s idea of empire, the modern colonialism operates by investment. It must be remarked in their favor that they are innocent of the savage hypocrisy of their forebears, they don’t claim to be bringing Jesus or civilization to those who dwell in darkness, they are only in it for the money.
Even a benign and humane government of a third-world nation, run by intelligent, educated and compassionate men are hard pressed to resist investment colonialism, they know they will end up with the table scraps, but they need the table scraps so desperately. So they swear that their legal system will protect investors, their police and army stand to do what used to be role of colonial troops, to “keep order” and protect stability.
And thats a legitimate government. The plutocracies, the tyrannies…lets draw a discreet veil over that, there are some things decent folk should not be directly forced to think about. Suffice to say “worse”.
Is this investment colonialism an advance over the Belgian Congo under the rule of Leopold II? Oh, my yes. But its mostly our creature, we of the advanced west, and its nothing to be proud of.
He mentions Fannon briefly in “Dreams”, talking about his college experience and the way he dealt with his fears that he wasn’t “black enough” and too much of a middle class establishment type, but calling Fannon an “influence” is really overstating it, I think.