I’m excited that the election will be this year. A feeling like the future hangs in the balance. Who will get to steer the American ship? Which guy will be more badass in an apocalyptic scenario? Yeah, that last thought, that is really how I think of things. God, in a prior post about Romney I referenced Martin Sheen’s The Dead Zone president. Just picture Romney’s frozen rictus/smile as he explains why we are in WWIII.
But what of the figure of the President? A President does hold a position of power. But the first thing that comes to mind is how people ascribe too much power to the position. When people get mad at the President it is like they are getting mad at god (God). Have you heard someone do this? Mad at god. Mad at a being invested with unimaginable power. Similar to those that are mad at the world. Impersonal forces run their lives. Arggh! What are you going to do?
I’m going to have to resort to semiotics here. Why talk about this position? How do we talk about it? When thinking of things on the big stage, the President seems to be someone who gets results, whose policies can change the world. It is definitely an important position. But, as a professor of mine once said, let’s unpack this idea. What’s behind it? Who do we refer to when we speak of the President?
First of all, when faced with a problem, it is nice to know what problem one is facing. Know thy enemy. Even better if the problem can be given a single word. The more meaning you can cram into a word the better. When people resort to vocabulary they want ultimate descriptors. The connotation of the denotation “The American President” has diffuse meanings. It is as though you went to Subway and told them one name that they understood to mean your sandwich and all the specific veggies and sauces you want on it. One quick word and they know what you mean. A sandwich in a sound-bite. One word loaded with meaning. It becomes code – aren’t codes rather handy?
And it is a known word. The President is the boss of the country, the position of which we all learn about in school. Better yet we learn about the word by hearing parents and friends say it, in good and bad ways. In the sense that it has currency it is easy to say it. It is a capitalized word. It is well known – a verbal arrow that you know will fly true and hit the recognition part of any listener’s brain
And this gets back to its code. When someone says “The President” they are invoking a person that has agency and that represents a certain way of using this agency. People are serious about what the President means. He can be their ally or foe. If only the president thought as they did then things would be better. If he would do this or do that, invade there or withdraw from there. When someone is happy with the president’s policies he becomes one’s friend. When he draws one’s ire he becomes an impossibly wrongheaded agent of doom.
My interest lies in the gap between what the President represents – in people’s heads – and what he actually is. It must be difficult to sort this out since common epistemological ground is hard to find. Nevertheless, I think there are some limitations that the President’s agency faces. Also I think people go overboard in finding words to overload with meaning. There are more forces at play that affect one’s life than just the President’s policies. This makes the hoopla surrounding the upcoming election perplexing, too. It is easy to get caught up in it and it is fun. However, there are more forces at play that should be part of anyone’s understanding of the world.
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