I am very grateful for the efforts of many Americans who have tried to make this a much more interesting election than it really should be. Marshall Sahlins should be delighted to see two of his most favoured concepts, continuity and change, appear with such regular emphasis in the campaign narratives.
I suspect that a great deal of continuity is/will be dressed up as change (change you can believe in, because its credibility derives from its familiarity perhaps), while one riding as a maverick is actually galloping cross country to preserve a status quo, to the cheers of extremist supporters who clearly imagine a different America (change only some can believe — the true believers).
The extremist angle is the more entertaining one, and in the spirit of the last post I offer this video below. It’s not every day that we get to see panic erupt in the streets of America. In these last hours, new panics are being fabricated: Obama will drain America of its energy, presumably because he is an evil villain with superhuman powers, or he will bankrupt a broken coal industry in a country gone bankrupt. If you can stand far enough away to avoid the bad breath of hatred and the incendiary spittle, it all becomes quite hilarious.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY 