On Using Your Gifts
by LewisThe great Samuel Johnson famously said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”
I wonder how Dr. Johnson would have characterized the several million people who publish various thoughts on the Internet under what are called “blogs” and pass them off as writing? Are they writing for money, are they blockheads, or are they perhaps writing for some other reason?
All of the above are true. Some write blogs for money, some for fame, and some write because they can’t help but write. None of those make the writing good, except in this way: if someone has a gift, a facility, a talent for writing and uses it, even in writing a blog, that is good because the gift is being used. The worst way to treat a gift is to fail to use it. No one has to convince Barack Obama of that.
The president-elect of the United States seems to have a gift for marketing and public relations, especially when it comes to marketing himself. It is far from clear to me that he has a gift for leading, a gift for making tough choices, a gift for grace, or even a gift for change, because all of those things get swallowed up in the marketing.
President-elect Obama has now created a web site dedicated to — you guessed it — more marketing and p.r. for President-elect Obama. He’s already started campaigning for his second term (in fact he started doing so publicly in his speech on election night) and I’m confident we’ll continue to see that (and more) on a regular basis for the next two months or so. By that time he’ll have to actually start doing the job of President and stop campaigning for a while, and I fear it will be a shock to his system.
So I’m just a little concerned: I want Obama to be an excellent president, and I’m praying for that. And I want him to use his gifts in ways that honor God. But it seems to me that his best gift — self promotion – is not a gift with which that is easily done.
Tags: Barack Obama, gifts, marketing, president-elect
November 11th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
As for me…I’m just a blockhead.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Obama is a leader. He has picked people that would help get him elected. His campaign was one of the best run campaigns ever run, even noted by his opponents. Now, he is picking people that will help run our nation. I pray that he makes excellent choices. With the country in the shape that it is, we have little room for petty ideology, we need excellence. This is going to take hard work, and to some extent mastery of the media in order to get his leadership message out. Will it be “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” ? Will it be every man for himself, and the rich and powerful, you get to be the front of the line for reduced taxes and bailouts?
FDR started a whole new era during the great depression, his famous chats over the wireless brought leadership into American homes. His message, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself” would be a good thing right about now. Is that just marketing? Or is it really leadership?
November 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Check out this new nanobama site.
Nothing quite like combining some work with a little marketing and I do mean little…
http://gizmodo.com/5076317/nanobama-barack-obama-in-nanotubes
Keith