« Tales from 57 States: The Donkey Clan Gathers | Jimmy Carter: McCain 'Milking' P.O.W. Experience »
PrintAugust 28, 2008
Obama's Temple of Illusion (updated)
Why the faux Greek Temple at Obama's mass rally at the Invesco Park, you ask? Actually, it's probably not his God Complex. It's just the basic stagecraft of visual illusion.
If you want an actor on stage to look tall, put him in a short frame. It's sometimes called 
"forced perspective". The most famous example is the Ames Distorted Room, and the wonderful website VisualFunHouse.Com has an example called the Little People Optical Illusion.
"forced perspective". The most famous example is the Ames Distorted Room, and the wonderful website VisualFunHouse.Com has an example called the Little People Optical Illusion. Except that the Obama's stage director will make him look big, tall, and closer than life instead of small, short, and distant. A Greek Temple is a perfect way to frame a human figure, and change perspective any way you like.
You have to keep in mind that the visual brain is always trying to "guesstimate" the size of objects. That's hard for objects that vary in size, like trucks and people. So we compare an object to the nearest thing we think we know ---- like a railroad track, where we believe it's the same far away and nearby, even though it looks like the far tracks are getting closer to each other. So take a look at this link -- it'a a kids' math site, and perfectly easy.
Imagine Obama's body instead of the lady in the pic. Now take a look at the Barackopolis.
They are both box-shaped in such a way as to exaggerate the size and 'sense of closeness' of the identical physical stimulus. These are very powerful illusions, they can easily double the perceived size of an object. I don't have any idea of the specifics of the Obama temple stage, but they are doing it for a good staging reason, I don't doubt.
The people behind the Obama are very crafty. The Democrats are rich in Hollywood talent. Bill Clinton had the Hollywood power couple Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who performed similar tricks for him.
Imagine Obama's body instead of the lady in the pic. Now take a look at the Barackopolis.
They are both box-shaped in such a way as to exaggerate the size and 'sense of closeness' of the identical physical stimulus. These are very powerful illusions, they can easily double the perceived size of an object. I don't have any idea of the specifics of the Obama temple stage, but they are doing it for a good staging reason, I don't doubt. The people behind the Obama are very crafty. The Democrats are rich in Hollywood talent. Bill Clinton had the Hollywood power couple Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who performed similar tricks for him.
The media photofrauds knew all about it, of course, and celebrated how well the Clintons' slick trickery fooled the American public. That's how Bill the Draft Dodger was able to look like he was marching a platoon of US Marines up the West Lawn of the White House, and still look taller than all those tough guys behind him. That's how he was able to win in 1996 against Bob Dole, who still bears lifelong injuries from the Italian campaign in WWII. Dole didn't like to talk about that during the campaign; but that hurt him in the election.
So you're going to see pure visual illusion.
What does that tell you about Obama and his inner circle?
Yes, exactly.
This is turning into a Greek farce, not a drama. Let's hope it doesn't turn into a tragedy by November.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.com.
James Lewis updates:
The "worship me" pyramid at Obama's Ivesco coronation is basically a vertical version of the
railroad illusion --- and we're all going to get railroaded! Depending where you put the TV camera you're going to capture different views of the pyramidal staircase plus Greek temple columns photo. Britney couldn't have asked for more!
The archetypal symbolism of a societal pyramid is absolutely standard. He's obviously using the pyramid staircase to rise to the symbolic top.
Update: Lee Cary offers a comparison from exactly 40 years ago that may have been uppermost int he kind of the Invesco Field planners:
Invesco Field:
James Lewis updates:
The "worship me" pyramid at Obama's Ivesco coronation is basically a vertical version of the
railroad illusion --- and we're all going to get railroaded! Depending where you put the TV camera you're going to capture different views of the pyramidal staircase plus Greek temple columns photo. Britney couldn't have asked for more!The archetypal symbolism of a societal pyramid is absolutely standard. He's obviously using the pyramid staircase to rise to the symbolic top.
Update: Lee Cary offers a comparison from exactly 40 years ago that may have been uppermost int he kind of the Invesco Field planners:
Invesco Field:
MLK's "I have a Dream Speech"
