To be fair, the Hero’s Journey is hardly comprehensive criteria for heroism. It’s most appropriate usage is in storytelling, so let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we’re dissecting the content of a man’s character, merely how well that character is packaged. Still, using Campbell’s original 17-step (17-meme?) path as our guide, here’s how the presumptive next president of the United States rates against other classic hero archetypes like Luke Skywalker, Neo, and—hell—let’s throw in Baby from Dirty Dancing:

1. The Call to Adventure

It begins simply enough with our hero, typically an orphan, trapped in a mundane existence with a longing to be more than they are. Luke wants to join the Rebellion, Neo is pricked by the question “what is the Matrix?”, and Baby attends her first dance lesson.

BarackObama.com’s Meet the Candidate page begins with:

Barack Obama was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. They didn’t have much money, but they taught him values from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. He took out loans to put himself through school.

Orphan? Sort of. Mundane? Check. Longing? Not explicitly, maybe it’s implied by “the Kansas heartland”… or maybe that’s just my own inference having grown up in Indiana.

2. Refusal of the Call

Heroes have to be selfless, so typically they reject the first call to adventure. They cite their obligations to family or community. Luke tells Obi-Wan he has to help his uncle with the harvest, Neo comes in from the ledge and is captured by Agents, and Baby declines the invitation to dance.

BarackObama.com again:

Obama turned down lucrative job offers after law school to return to Chicago, leading a successful voter registration drive. He joined a small law firm, taught constitutional law and, guided by his Christian faith, stayed active in his community.

Refusal? Check. Responsibilities to community? Check.

3. Supernatural Aid

Once the call is accepted the hero receives aid from an older and vaguely mythic mentor, who will be their guide through the dangerous hidden world and help the hero achieve what they never could. For Luke this is obviously Obi-Wan, for Neo it’s Morpheus, and for Baby it’s Johnny.

Obama’s website doesn’t mention any figure specifically, though—and here begins a criticism of how the McCain campaign has played into the Hero’s Journey more than once—one could imagine McCain’s characterization of the counsel Obama received early in his career from William Ayers to be of this nature. From a McCain press release:

…highlights Barack Obama’s long-standing relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. From his political introduction at Bill Ayers’ house in 1995 to their service together on two boards…

Again, we’re not talking about reality, just the story being told.

Older and wiser? Check. Introduction to a hidden world? Check. Achieve what he never could? Check.

4. Crossing of the First Threshold

The deliberate decision to enter the hidden world is the first true act the hero makes on his/her own. It typically requires a great deal of either courage or faith, as there’s no going back. Luke sells his landspeeder and books passage off of Tatooine, Neo takes the red pill, and Baby agrees to fill in for Penny.

BarackObama.com again:

…Barack had come to realize that in order to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a change in our laws and in our politics.

From there he would go to Harvard Law and on to the State Senate, politics at last.

Deliberate decision? Check. Faith/courage? Not mentioned explicitly. No going back? Not mentioned explicitly, though the commitment is there.

5. The Belly of the Whale

As crossing the threshold is a death of the hero’s former life, a rebirth is required. It typically involves the symbol of water and an emergence into a new body. For Luke, he is submerged and emerges from the garbage aboard the Death Star, Neo emerges from a pod of goo as a human battery, and Baby emerges from a lake onto Johnny’s outstretched arms.

BarackObama.com again:

Instead of being consumed by partisan politics, Senator Obama rose above it, emerging from the slime as—

Just kidding. This one’s way too specific. Nothing really comparable.

6. The Road of Trials

If a new edition of Campbell’s book were to come out today, this step would be renamed, “The Montage.” Here’s where the hero puts in time and effort to learn the skills of the hidden world. Luke put in his time on Dagobah with Yoda, Neo learned kung fu and practiced it with Morpheus, and Baby danced up endless flights of stairs to “Wipe Out”.

BarackObama.com again:

It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama’s life – growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas – that have animated his political journey. Amid the partisanship and bickering of today’s public debate, he still believes in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose…

Road as metaphor? Check. Time and energy? Not really, it’s more about holding true to the original reason he got into politics than learning the game. The Obama camp probably feels like they have to do this in order to not appear tainted by politics, since they’re running on change, but I think that’s unnecessary. Most folks would recognize that you can gain experience without compromising.

7. Meeting with the Goddess
8. Woman as the Temptress

Often combined in modern storytelling, steps seven and eight regard the Jungian archetypes Anima and Animus. That is, the male and female opposites within the self. While the (typically male) hero initially may wish to surrender their burdens to the female, destiny requires that these two halves be reconciled, so that a single self both male and female can continue the journey. Luke must transcend Leia as temptation, in a slight twist Trinity must admit her love for Neo in order for him to ascend, and Baby unites with Johnny (despite the deadly role sex has played in the film) to gain his strength.

I hope I don’t have to spell this one out for you. Let’s see, when has Barack Obama had to face a female version of himself and then unite both his male and her female identities to create one stronger self?

Big check.

9. Atonement with the Father

This step is about the hero confronting and redefining the system that has confined him/her up to this point. The father is often literal, but symbolically represents authority in all forms. Luke squares against Vader (a battle for which he has been preparing without even realizing this relationship), Neo faces his fears of authority in Agent Smith, Baby literally reconciles with her father (“You let me down too, Daddy.”).

This is “present day” for Senator Obama’s journey. He is, right at this moment, facing off against the symbol of the system as it currently exists.

Here again, the McCain campaign is playing right into the monomyth. Whether it’s sarcastically calling him “the one” or disparagingly “that one”, all of McCain’s negative campaigning is reinforcing the idea that this election is about Barack Obama as protagonist overcoming John McCain—not actually running against him as a peer. A loss will mean “the system” has won and the hero failed. “Country First” underscores that further, implying that Obama is running against America!

Father figure representing authority? Check. Redefining the system? Not yet, but it’s certainly the campaign promise.

Speaking of campaign promises, let’s run through some of the rest of these with an eye on foreshadowing. Afterall, merely suggesting that the following things are still to come supports the concept of Obama as hero.

10. Apotheosis
11. The Ultimate Boon

These steps are about ultimate self-sacrifice in order to achieve their personal destiny and retrieve something to benefit the community that the hero left behind so long ago. Luke throws himself from the tower instead of submit to the Dark Side, Neo dies but is reborn with the ability to change the Matrix as he sees fit, and Baby reveals her hidden world (dancing) to her family and stops being afraid.

Certainly any apotheosis for Barack Obama’s journey would coincide with a victorious election. I’m drawing a blank on any implications of outstanding self-sacrifice. This may be another “Belly of the Whale”.

12. Refusal of the Return
13. The Magic Flight
14. Rescue from Without

The new powers of the hero are so intoxicating, he/she nearly forgets that the boon was acquired for others and wants to stay in the hidden world forever. Soon they remember or are rescued by a third party and race back to the mundane world, just in time. Luke is nabbed by the Millennium Falcon as it flees Cloud City, Neo must be reminded to answer the ringing phone before Trinity can stop the robots destroying the ship, and Baby enjoys one last “time of her life” on stage.

With the “Rescue from Without” step, we’re beginning to touch on the Obama campaign again. Afterall, the quote featured most prominently on his website is:

I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change to Washington … I’m asking you to believe in yours.

This request does suggest that a President Obama would not be able to fulfill all of the promises made without help from those who have not undergone the same transformative journey that he has but nonetheless have a vital role to play.

15. Crossing of the Return Threshold
16. Master of Two Worlds
17. Freedom to Live

The final three steps involve the hero learning to co-exist in both the hidden and mundane world, then sharing their gift with everyone—who are transformed or freed from the dangers that set the hero in motion back in step one. Luke becomes a Jedi and parties with Ewoks, Neo tells the Agents “I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. … A world where anything is possible.” and Baby gets the whole room a-dirty dancin’.

Is this the ultimate promise of the Obama campaign? A world where “anything is possible” and driven by what we, as a people, want to create? Perhaps. He closed his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president declaring:

[I]n America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one. … America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future.

Sounds like Neo to me.

Conclusion

While certainly fun, have we learned anything today? Do I mean to imply that the Obama campaign is subtly using Joseph Campbell’s monomyth to warp your brain into thinking their candidate is the hero we’ve been waiting for? Not really. Much more likely, our brains are already warped and describing a journey of any magnitude allows for such comparison. Perhaps the 17-step path is woven into the fabric of the universe, or perhaps we’ve just watched a lot of movies and the pattern feels comfortable to us.

Why not ask the candidate himself?

Oh, okay. Clearly he prefers the Superman/Christ myth. For Jor-El so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

You can get the thumbnail for this post on a t-shirt here.

The Oscars are just around the corner. I know this because there are advertisements for the broadcast on every corner in San Francisco. The ad strategy consists entirely of large famous movie quotes (memes, if you prefer that nomenclature), like “I coulda been a contender!” or “May the Force be with you.” It has a done a great job of reminding me how movies were so much better decades ago (On the Waterfront was ’59, and Star Wars: A New Hope was ’77).

Black Snake Moan will probably not be nominated for anything shiny anytime soon. Nonetheless, while I have not seen any more than the trailer, I’m already excited. Though the title itself (from an old blues song) is vastly more ambiguous that Samuel L. Jackson’s last flick, the plot seems to be relatively easy to summarize:

1. There exists a skanky ho.
2. Skanky ho gets chained up until she learns to be less skanky.
3. Profit.

The brilliance of this movie is not in its compelling narrative, multi-dimensional characters, or rich cinematography (granted I have not seen the movie and these may well be brilliant as well). No, it’s all about social relevance—relevance to the extreme of necessity. The “Black Snake Moan” treatment is precisely what America needs. Clearly, our celebrities are out of control. Can you honestly say that Britney would not benefit from some serious de-skankification? She needs chains… strong chains.

All that’s left is to come up with a good term for the process of getting chained up until you’re less skanky. My first thought was perhaps, “Blacksnaked.” As in, “I hear you’re Blacksnaking Nicole Richie this weekend, can I watch?” I then briefly toyed with “Chain-trained.” As in, “Yes, she’s pretty, but is she chain-trained?” But I eventually settled on “Moaned.” As in, “Damn girl, you needs get Moaned in a powerful way.” Until the movie actually comes out and Mr. Jackson bellows that perfect phrase to rival, “May the Force be with you.”, let’s leave it at that.

Start spreading the news.

A number of (possibly all) of my friends and family have more attachment to a spiritual practice than myself, so—although I’ve watched from afar as others have attempted to tackle this issue—I’ve kept out of the debate until now. Of course, I don’t really see what there is to debate. Didn’t Immanuel Kant say the same thing back in “Kritik der reinen Vernunft“?

For those who haven’t followed the antics of Dawkins (non sequitur: he also invented the word “meme” back in 1976), his book proposes that the term “delusion”, defined as a belief that is maintained despite contradiction by rational argument, most certainly applies to religion. He’s been interviewed by everyone from the BBC to Stephen Colbert. Both the Left and Right reviews of his book and follow-up documentary “Root of All Evil?” tend to criticize his ferocity rather than his arguments. Probably because they rightly perceive the futility in doing so. Dawkins, an extremely articulate Oxford University biologist, is the Top Dog on his issues (though I’d love to see him debate Ken Wilber). His criticism of the lack of academic rigor around religion is dead on. I’m still tempted to say, “so what?”

Religion explains religion using religion. How do we know God exists? Because the Bible says so. Why should we believe the Bible? Because it’s the Word of God. How do we know it’s the Word of God? Because the Bible says so. Around and around we go. Any rational person who doesn’t notice this should be sent back to Sunday School (another non sequitur: an overzealous Sunday School teacher once forced me to choose either Jesus and my Hindu friend Arjun… Arjun won… see you this Christmas, Arjun!). Noting circular logic need not make you an Atheist, however.

Science explains science using science. How do we know electromagnetism exists? Because scientific research says so. Why should we believe scientific research? Because it follows the Scientific Method. Why should we believe the Scientific Method? Because its results are confirmed by scientific research. Around and around we go again. As a system unto itself, science is completely coherent. As a world view, it makes basic assumptions, like “the world is understandable by the human mind”, that I’m uncomfortable saying are a priori.

The real problems come about when one system tries to govern the other. “The God Delusion” is clearly an attempt to apply science to religion and, no surprise, religions fails miserably. However, religion has been doing the same to science for years—whether it’s religious US politicians censoring research on sex education or Galileo being forced to recant for suggesting the Earth was not the center of the universe.

Can science and religion get along? There are lots of examples that attempt to merge the two. Christian Science characterizes disease as a separation from God and treatable through faith. Many find their objection to conventional medicine irresponsible, conveniently ignorant about both the Placebo Effect and that 1.5 million people are hospitalized every year due to adverse reactions to prescription medication. Another example (I’m deliberately picking on religions that include “science” in their name) is Scientology, an “Applied Religion” which offers its members specific techniques (like the ARC Triangle and Tone Scale) to lead more graceful lives. Though both of these belief systems have received more than their fair share of criticism, two dear friends of mine are a Christian Scientist and a Scientologist—and they’re both wonderful people.

That’s what it really comes down to for me. People. Many before me have asked Dawkins what, really, is so bad about religion. He shares a list of atrocities committed in its name or justified by it, ranging from genocide to homophobia. Critics of Atheism quickly retort that Stalin was an Atheist, isn’t that just as bad? Of course, those who seek to control populations always make use of belief systems to do so. Though George W. Bush claims to get his orders from God, I don’t think unprovoked assault is quite what Jesus had in mind. Let’s not forget how Darwinism led to Nazi eugenics. In short, both religion and science can be tools for evil in the hands of a tyrant.

With that, I really have to end with Nietzsche. “God is dead!” is possibly the most misunderstood three words in modern philosophy. To really understand what Friedrich was getting at in “Die fröhliche Wissenschaft“, let me include the rest of the passage.

God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife—who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it? There never was a greater event—and on account of it, all who are born after us belong to a higher history than any history hitherto!

Nietzsche writes not in the first person here, but puts these words into the mouth of a “madman”. He is laughed out of the village, an Atheist village, all the while shouting, “What are these churches now, if they are not the tombs and monuments of God?”. Nietzsche’s message is not intended as anti-religious, but an admonition of those who have dethroned God without realizing their vital new responsibility to bring order to the chaos of existence. “Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness?”

This is a question that people of science and people of faith must answer, and can only answer, together.

For most, “Web 2.0″ is either a meaningless phrase or one way past its expiration date. Yet there is undeniably a meme-complex that the phrase captures.

Now I must digress to explain meme-complexes. What defines a bird? All birds fly, but not penguins or ostriches. All birds lay eggs, but so do reptiles and the duck-billed platypus. Still, one can look at a bird and see the loose connection of almost-but-not-quite signifiers and get a good idea for what a “bird” is. We call that little cloud of memes a meme-complex or, just to be clever, memeplex.

To return to the issue at hand, with “Web 2.0″ one can see the rounded corners, the subtle gradients, the extra-legible typography and get a good idea for what it looks like (and all of these design elements are present with the friendly-looking Wii). But, of course, there’s more to “Web 2.0″ than just how it looks.

According to O’Reilly, it’s about rich experiences, user-added value, and the Long Tail (and a few more things). Of course, others have other criteria. In general, most would agree that it’s about treasuring the needs and power of the user over superfluous features.

Me and my Mii

James Surowiecki (of Wisdom of Crowds fame), acknowledges that Nintendo is thriving in 3rd place and cites reasons like recognizing limitations and focusing on making fun games instead of the bigger!faster!more! that has seduced Sony and Microsoft (both their consoles and other offerings). My first reaction was, “oh, it looks like Nintendo has read Getting Real“. While Sony loses money on every PS3, in an effort to capture market share (how Web 1.0!), Nintendo’s making money making games people want to play.

Nintendo is far from a cute, little startup. Certainly. I remember the gyroscope-spinning robot from the 80s. Still, the spirit of forsaking bloat and simply delivering the goods is delightfully illustrated in both their own commercials and parody ads. Contrast this with the sterile padded cell and black monolith in the Sony ads and it’s suddenly easy to imagine Nintendo as a ragtag bunch of passionate coders that slapped this thing together in their spare time and next thing you know it’s selling like hotcakes.

There’s a lot more that Nintendo could do if they wanted to truly embrace their 2.0 nature. I’d start with making the Virtual Console handle both downloads and uploads, so amateur gamers could share their own creations (which would require Nintendo releasing at least a junior version of its SDK). Next, take all of the “Abandonware” that is now legal to pirate and Open Source it. Let the community add new levels to Bubble Bobble or new units to Herzog Zwei. Finally, why not embrace the social networking aspects of 2.0 and facilitate players meeting other players: “Stan, we’d like you to Becky. She lives near you, is single, and always plays as Princess Peach in Mario Kart. Just like you!”

It’s not the first time O’Reilly has expressed his unmitigated hate toward the city of San Francisco. Almost exactly a year ago, he told Al Qaeda, “You want to blow up Coit Tower? Go ahead.” This time, his current rhetoric is more aimed at our gay pride parades, “pot shops”, and mocking of Christianity.

I should know better than to assume anything O’Reilly says is rooted in reality, but assertions that San Francisco is some sort of secular playground is ridiculous. I’ve attended services at Glide with a Jewish friend and managed to make it to a Solstice or Beltane party every once in a while, too. Further, the Mission District is very Catholic and there are neighborhood celebrations around Confirmations or Baptisms every week.

So what exactly are “San Francisco Values”?

He’s hitting on something with the gay pride parades. San Francisco definitely values diversity. The tremendous Chinese New Year Parade has been named one of the world’s top ten parades. I loved going last year and seeing all the little kids dressed like puppies for the Year of the Dog. Last week’s Dia de los Muertos celebration was a beautiful colored stone in the mosaic of cultures that is San Francisco.

The “pot shops” crack may be a crack at our hippie heritage and I’m pleased to say that the treehugger’s have left a lasting legacy. San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland are all in the Top 20 greenest cities in the U.S. according to the Green Guide. Personally, I take one of the four excellent forms of mass transit San Francisco has (none of which use gasoline) to work every day.

One thing that Bill has left out, however, is San Francisco’s value of innovation. I’ve long said that the DNA of San Francisco contains, across the board, the “I wonder what’s West of here?” gene. That spirit of imagination and adventure has given the world some amazing things. Considering just the illustrious internet marvels, the Bay Area is home to Apple, Craigslist, Flickr, Google, Yahoo, and YouTube among many, many others. Let’s not forget popsicles and fortune cookies!

One more invention that had its root in San Francisco that Bill O’Reilly may be especially thankful for and not even know it. On a foggy day in September, back in 1927, Philo T. Farnsworth brought to life a device without which the world would never come to know the No Spin Zone, the motherfucking television.

Diversity, sustainability, and innovation? Those are San Francisco values and Congress could sure use all of them.

My particular project was inspired by James Surowiecki’s amazing work on the wisdom of crowds. It seems that, given the right circumstances, crowds can be remarkably intelligent—quite contrary to popular opinion that, while a person is smart “people” are stupid. I’ve seen other people replicate the “jellybean jar” phenomenon and thought I would give it a try at my office.

Out comes a really big jar and lots of malted milkballs. One hundred seventy-six (176) of them in fact, though I was tempted throughout the process to, uhm, abbreviate the total. The general idea is that, despite the wide range of guesses from the staff on how many milkballs are in the jar, the average of our guesses should be very, very close. Hopefully (since that’s the point of the project) closer than any one guess.

Next I go office to office, stopping people in hallways as need be, and give them the pitch: “Fill out the piece of paper with your name and your guess, using any method you wish for guessing—other than removing the top and counting them one-by-one, however it is of the utmost importance that you discuss neither your guess nor your strategy with any other staff member.” Yes, it was a run-on sentence, but by the end of the morning, I had it down pretty well.

It turns out we had guesses as low as 86 and as high as 275. That’s quite a range. Still, when I averaged all the guesses together, I got 178—only two away from the correct number! That beats both the closest guess (at 168) and the “panel of experts”, meaning the average of the five closest guesses, (at 164). Yes, including the outlier “noise” actually made the guess more accurate.

When people are asked to make a decision, they do so with a certain amount of bias. If they discuss their decision with others, this bias spreads to others. However, in a diverse crowd operating as individuals, these biases cancel one another out, making the group more intelligent. I;’m sure that a memetic analysis would involve memes and anti-memes colliding and exploding.

The staff was overall very appreciative of the experiment/celebration and immediately saw its implications with how we both interact in group decision-making and how we receive feedback from our activist network. They were also quite happy that the lesson ended with the average being closer than any one guess, because that meant we got to split the malted milkballs.