The other night I sat in on a new, lively reading group at our university discussing religion and modernity. We picked up Max Weber\u2019s \u201cScience as a Vocation,\u201d as a way into these topics. I read this article in graduate school, but over the past couple of days I have found myself thinking more and more about this puzzling little piece. One passage in particular made me think about the Nobel Peace Prize going to Obama yesterday. Weber states that in an increasingly rationalized society there is a \u201cdisenchantment of the world,\u201d as \u201cthe ultimate and most sublime values have retreated from public life either into the transcendental realm of mystic life or into the brotherliness of direct and personal human relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would appear that the Nobel committee at least partially picked Obama for his renewed faith in public discourse to bring about peace and change in the world. Tim Rutten argues in the Los Angeles Times that the award was rightly given to the President for \u201cwords\u201d rather than \u201cdeeds.\u201d I would further argue the prize most appropriately went to Obama for finding a midway through Weber\u2019s predicament in the above passage. Obama\u2019s rhetoric has sought to enchant the political realm through sublime values that no human being can live without\u2014for example, through the trope of \u201chope\u201d. At the same time, these are values that are grounded in direct and personal human relations, or in abductive intersubjectivity rather than deductive, non-contextual assertion. There is much to critique in Obama\u2019s administration, but it has at least evidenced an empirical concern for active listening and diplomacy as consequential in politics.<\/p>\n
In one of his speeches, Obama espouses a faith in public discourse: \u201cDon\u2019t tell me words don\u2019t matter. \u2018I have a dream.\u2019 Just words? \u2018We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.\u2019 Just words? \u2018We have nothing to fear but fear its self\u2019\u2014just words? Just speeches?\u201d At a minimum, Obama\u2019s prior speech-actions have performed a role to which all those who love peace can aspire\u2014enchanting the world with sublime but accountable words \u2013 Don Waisanen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The other night I sat in on a new, lively reading group at our university discussing religion and modernity. We picked up Max Weber\u2019s \u201cScience as a Vocation,\u201d as a way into these topics. I read this article in graduate school, but over the past couple of days I have found myself thinking more and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1881,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}