No one disagrees that Wright did wonderfully on Moyers. It was at the National Press Club shortly afterwards where he came off like an unhinged buffoon, at least up to a point. That’s what damaged Obama.

Towards Understanding Wright & His Actions:

Growing up I had “befriended” a guy similar to Wright, and I of a similar disposition as Obama. I talked about him here once before on strategy versus tactics.

He had enormous charisma. He could sell ice to Eskimos. He was easily the funniest guy I have ever met. When people met him they just loved him. They didn’t realize that the manifestation of charisma was driven by his attempt to cope with his own demons: demons he wanted to hide from the world and himself.

The first time I met him, in 5th grade, I noticed that he didn’t feel comfortable with
himself – I thought him dangerous and unstable, so I wanted to stay away from him and for a year and half I went out of my way to avoid him. A year or two later we were forced together by circumstance. My parish’s school had closed, so his parents and my parents had us sent to another school that had vastly more wealthy people than either of us and it forced us to ride a bus to school together every day where we were the only ones of the same age and sex (12).

By then he had developed out-sized charisma, charming everyone, making everyone laugh, that sort of thing. He could sell ice to eskimos and he would not only win every argument, but make the other person look foolish and humble. But he was also uncontrollable: the teachers were exasperated by his misdemeanors in class that also thrilled the rest of the class with entertainment, laughter and audacity.

He had an instinct towards power, in the sence that, if the teacher (or anyone) didn’t have the power to limit his actions, then was likely to do or pull anything off at any time.

He and I shared unique circumstances in how we were forced together, we were as ‘friends’ for over two decades. Eventually, at some point, I realized that he had always been competitive with me, and I should say, against me.

For almost two years he goaded me to play him in a game of one-on-one basketball. Finally relenting, his intensity in that game blindsided me. In high school I kept losing books. Much later I learned he was throwing them away hoping it would bring down my grades. I developed a deep crush on one of my sisters girl friends. She had truly unique looks. He kept badgering me about what kind of girl I liked. I could only think of her, but because her looks were so unique, I could never describe her to him. Finally I pointed out some girl who, at a distance, remotely looked like her. In a few weeks he was dating her. Back then I thought, what a coincidence, but nothing more because she wasn’t the object of my desire and I was largely, still, clueless of his competitive nature. Later on he married another girl I had dated. Later on he ended up hitting her and she filed for divorce. I’ve stayed friends with her – not close, but still, she’s sent me christmas cookies in Korea.

At some point after this, he confronted me with some of his problems when his marraige was falling apart. Suddenly, in a flash, the scales fell from my eyes and his whole history of interaction with me kind of flashed before my eyes, and I realized how distorted his motivations had been his entire life. It was something I could not have imagined. His motivation in life was utterly so petty, I thought.

Essentially my first impressions of him was right, that he felt he was flawed in his own skin (though not really flawed, just felt he was flawed). And initially, I had done my best to avoid him, until situations had thrust us into a cage together – and then I tried to make the best of it.

His discomfiture with himself was the fault, I think, of one or both of his parents (his father was a great believer in the Scholar/Athelete of Greek lore – the pursuit of excellence in both) I think he felt he never measured up to expectations. He did all right with athletics, but, though smart, lacked the discipline for academics. I, for the most part, was okay with myself. I also got good grades. His competitiveness with me was motivated by a deep sense of personal flaw and trying to prove to himself, or parents or I guess to me, or all of the above, that he was better than me.

This ‘friend’ of mine perceived a flaw in himself, that made him feel that the only way he could feel equal with others was by either beating them or pulling them down to his level. I think this is probably called an inferiority complex.

His friendship with me was driven, probably by the desire to understand how I was the way I was – comfortable in my own skin (but what he didn’t realize was how uncomfortable or shy I was with others), ok athletically but not driven to excellence, just for enjoyment, and above average academics. I have no doubt that his father said, why can’t you be more like Tim Kane when it came to academics. I’m sure he was driven to try to understand me for my balance and my academics, and in turn, to try to beat me in athletics – which was easy enough because I never took it seriously. For my part, I tried to learn from him how to engage dynamically with other people. I’m sure I picked up some of his charisma over the years and improved my sense of humor along with it. I never wanted to be stuck with him, but being stuck with him I tried to make the most of it.

I think this kind of dystopia is going on with Rev. Wright. I should say, I grew up in a racially mixed area in St. Louis (Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and Blacks in almost equal measure – I would say I have better insight into both the black and jewish worlds than most white non-Jewish Americans). My ‘friend’ had an instant and intimate connection with black people that I have never seen in a white person before, although Bill Clinton kind of approximated it. He instinctively understood and apreciated black people. While honing his own basketball skills, he spent a whole summers in the St. Louis ghetto in the late 1970s and early 1980s, everyday, playing basketball in pickup games, because that’s where the best tallent lies. He’s the only white person I’ve ever heard use the N-word in talking with blacks in which black people didn’t even flinch, let alone take exception. After watching Wright, I now think I see why he was able to move between these two worlds so seamlessly – they both suffered from inferiority complexes, so they were both able to understand each other.

Obama, I’m sure, was charmed and fascinated by Wright’s charisma and curious about it and what he has been able to achieve with it. Maybe some of that charisma has rubbed of on Obama and helps make him the great orator he is today – for 20 years Obama watched and learned and then practiced while teaching or what not. I don’t want to say that Obama’s skill is not natural, he is a natural born and charismatic speaker, but he also got to watch Wright as he went – and so picked up some things. Obama appears to be mild mannered and comfortable in his own skin to me. That means, like myself, Obama might not have been able to truly understand the force within Wright that impelled his charisma. To Obama, Wright’s charisma was, I’m sure, fascinating to behold. As it still is. But today, I’m sure Obama is coming to understand a little more about the dystopia that impells such charisma.

There’s a lot being written about the angry black man, especially in regard to Wright. There is something inside Wright, about Wright, that Wright feels he has to overcome just to feel okay, just to feel equal – and that feeling of equality never stays, it fades and rather quickly. The anger of angry black men, comes from a sense of inferiority, a sense of which they get from their relations from white people – blaming white people may be correct because they didn’t get that from themselves, they got if from their long interaction with white people. Because its psychological it’s difficult and complex to overcome – my guess is few do, but with luck their offspring never get it.

Now, Obama’s career has taken flight, in part, because of Rev. Wright and the institutions he built related to his Trinity Church.

Wright probably feels like “he made Obama what he is today”, so he also probably feels he can unmake him, and he has a right to do it. Like my friend in grade school, he’s liable to do anything if he can get away with it. He seemingly feels impelled to do so, and he does so with great charisma. That Obama would leave Wright behind, especially after Wright helped make Obama what he is, is something, I think, confirms to Wright, something ugly about himself. And so he feels impelled to act – simply because he can.

Perhaps what it all gets back to is that Wright is the angry black man. And he’s jealous of Obama, because Obama is not the angry black man. Like my friend, there is a sense of a deep seated flaw there – that’s there only because he thinks it’s there: maybe, probably, its because ‘white society’ has told him it was there. Because it’s complex and deep seated, there’s no easy way out of it. Wright sort of lives in an invisible hell. Obama, standing right next to him on many occassions, lives outside that hell. We can see from this a mutual fascination, that leads to association, but as it turns out, it’s not really friendship – it’s mutual fascination.

Obama’s background is truly unique – Hawaii is the only state where white people are in the minority. For whatever reason, Obama doesn’t have that flaw – the anger and the sense of inferiority because he didn’t live in societies where that narative was alive, so he doesn’t have the anger, and because of that, white people don’t feel threatened by Obama. Obama doesn’t inherit the narrative most black men do. Because he hasn’t the anger, nor the sense of flaw that causes the anger, Obama is able to soar in a way no other black man has, and with ease.

I think Wright is jealous of Obama and his ability to soar, and of Obama’s lack of anger and lack of a sense of being flawed for being a black man.

I think what Wright is trying to do, is say to Obama, you don’t get to soar because you are a black man and I am going to thrust the effect of the angry black man upon you whether you want it or not. It’s just rank jealousy.

Another friend of mine who spent his childhood summers on Cape code says that if you watch crabs in a bucket they are all trying to crawl out of it, and just as one is about to crawl out of it, one of the other crabs below him pulls him down – so that none of the crabs ever manage to escape from the bucket. That’s the dynamic that is impelling Wright, I think. In those terms then the Wright/Obama phenomina is truly dramatic, of Shakespearian proportions.

I think Obama’s unique background makes him uniquely valuable to the American community. Most white people will instinctively not engage in dialog if they sense that the black person is angry. Most black people are, for some very valid reasons, angry, and white people can sense it. That anger puts white people on the defensive and so they don’t want to engage in the dialog. And that dynamic is keeping the racial issue from progressing in our society.

However, most white people want to move the issue of race relations forward – they just can’t move it forward by engaging in dialog that’s seething with anger, and to be fair, that might be counter productive: better to get along than be shouting at each other. Because Obama doesn’t harbor the anger, he’s uniquely positioned to move the dialog forward and perhaps make a great leap forward in racial relations and dialog in the country. In this sense I think Obama is kind of a miracle in our society: he’s the one black who has the intellectual and academic ability and credentials and the rhetoric al skills and the lack of anger and the understanding of both groups.

I think Obama is a special person. He’s got an even temperament, he’s smart strategically and tactically and academically, proven to be a good manager. In so many ways he promises to be a great gift to this country. (Hillary, I’m sorry, but good female candidates will come and go, but we aren’t likely to get this kind of black candidate ever again).

What Wright is doing now is one of the most shameful displays I have ever seen. Materially or career wise, Wright has little to lose – which makes him really dangerous. That charisma you see on the tube masks some dystopia. In fact, that charisma is the tool by which Wright developed over the ages to help him cope and fight his dystopia. But it never fully succeeded. It’s a dystopia Wright is still a prisoner of. A dystopia Wright wants also Obama to be a prisoner of as well. That charisma might not have succeeded in getting Wright out of his dystopia, but it might succeed in keeping Obama in it.

That is nothing more than petty jealousy on Wrights part. It’s truly fastenating and its truly tragic. The drama reaches its climax not in Wrights attempt at holding Obama down, but in Obama’s escape from Wright’s clutches. Obama crawls out of the bucket – and maybe, he turns around and helps the other crabs crawl out too – the other crabs being not just blacks, but all Americans who inherit America’s racial dystopia, which is to say, almost all of us to some degree.

Obama could prove to be truly monumental. Wright’s antics only serves to help illustrate as to why Obama’s campaign is so truly important and monumental.

And this is just one layer, upon which there are many in which history has selected now as the point in which so many questions are to be dealt with.

One other point, that some one else wrote to the New York Times about: that is, Obama could possibly undermine a whole class of black leaders who thrive on the current dystopia I describe above. That is, Wrights actions are a result of a Weberian sense of self preservation for a class or bureaucracy that has thrived in the current dystopia.

In other words, once the crabs are out of the bucket, there is no or less need for someone who job was to help crabs cope with being in the bucket in the first place.

I think that that is an interesting take and I’m sure plays a part. Obama succeeds and the narrative that Wright has lived his whole life by, becomes somewhat discredited. Wright becomes less important. So he tries to pull the crab back into the bucket and undermines Obama’s campaign.