I read the book. The anticolonialist theory makes sense and fits right in with socialist wealth redistribution and the Green movement's "Ishmael" theory of Takers/Leavers. It all comes down to the evil Takers from the "North" pillaging the peace loving, Gaia worshiping Leavers from the "South".
Obama was brought up by people who hated America and its ideals. His mother, grandparents and mentors all were communists. How could Obama be anything but anti Western?
"D'Souza traces the pull to the presumed father and his Kenyan experience. "In the anticolonial view," writes D'Souza, "America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world." Yes, this is the worldview on display in Dreams, but to assume that Obama absorbed this from Barack Sr. has little evidentiary support in Dreams or elsewhere.
The evidence suggests that Obama absorbed the rogue elephant rhetoric, if not the sentiment itself, from Ayers. "Picture an oversized, somewhat dim-witted monster, greedy and capricious," Ayers writes of the United States, "its eyes put out by fiery stakes and now flailing in a blind rage, smashing its way through villages and over mountains."
Obama had other anticolonial mentors, like Rashid Khalidi, whom D'Souza does not mention, and Edward Said, whom D'Souza cites as Obama's teacher at Columbia. But all roads seem to circle back to Ayers. Said was a good buddy of Ayers and wrote a glowing blurb for his memoir. Khalidi gives Ayers top credit for helping him with his book, Resurrecting Empire.
There is more. D'Souza cites "Frantz Fanon" as one of "Obama's acknowledged intellectual influences." What he overlooks is that in Fugitive Days, Ayers misspells Fanon's first name as "Franz," exactly as Obama does in Dreams. Also on the anticolonial front, both Ayers and Obama misspell in the same fashion the site of the South African massacre, Sharpeville.
Both Obama and Ayers use "Mekong Delta" as a synecdoche for Vietnam. Both have scenes in which clueless "State Department" officials — plural — link Indonesia with the march of communism through the archaic, colonial-sounding "Indochina." Both talk of the West's "imperial culture." Both use the phrase "perfectly American" ironically, if not bitterly. Both describe their place in American society as "behind enemy lines." Coincidence? I don't think so."
I read the book. The anticolonialist theory makes sense and fits right in with socialist wealth redistribution and the Green movement's "Ishmael" theory of Takers/Leavers. It all comes down to the evil Takers from the "North" pillaging the peace loving, Gaia worshiping Leavers from the "South".
Obama was brought up by people who hated America and its ideals. His mother, grandparents and mentors all were communists. How could Obama be anything but anti Western?
Trevor, you might like Cashill's thoughts on this topic over at AT.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/09/what_dsouza_doesnt_get_quite_r.html
Tidbit:
"D'Souza traces the pull to the presumed father and his Kenyan experience. "In the anticolonial view," writes D'Souza, "America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world." Yes, this is the worldview on display in Dreams, but to assume that Obama absorbed this from Barack Sr. has little evidentiary support in Dreams or elsewhere.
The evidence suggests that Obama absorbed the rogue elephant rhetoric, if not the sentiment itself, from Ayers. "Picture an oversized, somewhat dim-witted monster, greedy and capricious," Ayers writes of the United States, "its eyes put out by fiery stakes and now flailing in a blind rage, smashing its way through villages and over mountains."
Obama had other anticolonial mentors, like Rashid Khalidi, whom D'Souza does not mention, and Edward Said, whom D'Souza cites as Obama's teacher at Columbia. But all roads seem to circle back to Ayers. Said was a good buddy of Ayers and wrote a glowing blurb for his memoir. Khalidi gives Ayers top credit for helping him with his book, Resurrecting Empire.
There is more. D'Souza cites "Frantz Fanon" as one of "Obama's acknowledged intellectual influences." What he overlooks is that in Fugitive Days, Ayers misspells Fanon's first name as "Franz," exactly as Obama does in Dreams. Also on the anticolonial front, both Ayers and Obama misspell in the same fashion the site of the South African massacre, Sharpeville.
Both Obama and Ayers use "Mekong Delta" as a synecdoche for Vietnam. Both have scenes in which clueless "State Department" officials — plural — link Indonesia with the march of communism through the archaic, colonial-sounding "Indochina." Both talk of the West's "imperial culture." Both use the phrase "perfectly American" ironically, if not bitterly. Both describe their place in American society as "behind enemy lines." Coincidence? I don't think so."