VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 297When Craig Venter went to the White House in 2000 to inform President Clinton that modern
science had mastered the human genome, he told Clinton that one of the results of his research was
that no such thing as race exists. President Clinton declared, “After all, I believe one of the great
truths to emerge from this triumphant expedition inside the human genome is that in genetic terms
all human beings, regardless of race, are more than 99.9% the same.” At the same press conference,
Craig Venter, president and CEO of Celera Genomics, reinforced Clinton’s message, asserting that
“the concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis.”^153 Race is a fiction, an empty construct, a
pure mystification. The neurological differences that Wright asserts are the result of poverty and
exclusion, and can be dealt with by eliminating these factors.
“GNOSTIC” ELEMENTS IN THE OBAMA AGITATION
Another way of analyzing Michelle Obama’s speeches about the problem of broken souls is to
understand that she is claiming for political activity in government a much wider role than has
usually been the case in this country. Michelle Obama is trying to sell politics as a means of
reaching goals which have normally been associated with religion. The fixing or healing or making
whole of broken souls is the task of Paradise or Nirvana, and not of the politically rally or the ballot
box. The traditional view is the one expressed by St. Paul:
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues,
they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we
prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but
when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but
then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.^154
According to this, it is only in the life of the world to come that the fragmentation, mutilation,
and alienation of this earthly vale of tears can be overcome. Virtuous pagans could and did have
wisdom, justice, temperance, and fortitude, but faith, hope and charity are specifically Christian
virtues – especially, for our purposes here, hope. Michelle Obama makes a radically different claim,
suggesting that the magical powers possessed by her husband can realize and accomplish in the
political form, on earth, and soon the sorts of deep changes that are usually reserved for heaven.
The political philosopher Eric Voegelin applied the label of Gnosticism to this kind of political
culture. Others suggested that the fascists could be called pagan or neopagan, but Voegelin insisted
on the term Gnostic, since he saw modern politicians in Europe as holding out the promise of
specifically Christian forms of Paradise or heaven (referred to as the eschaton), but brought down to
earth in the form of a political utopia thought to be within reach if only state power could be seized
and held.
A pre-Obama standard reference summary of Voegelin’s leading concept may make these
connections clear:
Voegelin was a political philosopher known most widely in America for The New Science of
Politics, his 1952 University of Chicago Walgreen lectures. In them Voegelin argued that
modern ideological movements such as communism and fascism repeated the gnostic heresy of
early Christianity. Early Christian gnosticism separated a person’s “spiritual” elements—
claimed to be real—from his or her “material” parts—claimed to be unreal. Jesus was perfect
because his spirit—his reason and motivation—was perfect. Gnostics believed humans who
grasped this truth could also achieve perfection on earth and not have to wait for the eschaton.
Voegelin argued that in modern times gnosticism has become politicized. Politicized gnosticism