Monday, September 16, 2013

Obama Then and Now: the Rashomon Effect

Sometimes it is worth stepping back from the fray to gain a little perspective. A shipped tossed about in a mighty gale looks one way to the passengers aboard, quite another way (as Lucretius pointed out in his great poem) to the lucky person watching from the comfortable safety of the hilltop overlooking the bay.
I suspect that, for many observers, a material change has lately stolen over the metabolism of political life in America.  A shift in the existential light illuminating events makes what is happening and, retrospectively, what has happened appear differently. The shadows are longer now, a blinding glare obscures things that used to be clearly outlined, and surprising new features of the objects populating the landscape are suddenly in sharp relief.

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2013/09/15/obama-then-and-now-the-rashomon-effect-first-in-a-series/?singlepage=true 

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