Obama’s bow and liberal elitism
People miss the point about Obama’s bow to the Japanese emperor. The story, as far as I see it, has nothing to do with Obama “genuflecting” or “showing subservience” before foreign leaders or whatever form of treason the right-wing punditocracy is characterizing it as. It’s not about foreign policy at all. It’s simply another manifestation of the liberal v. conservative “culture wars.” Or perhaps more specifically, class wars.
According to Japanese protocol, the sort of bow that Obama did, the so-called 90-degree bow, is the most reverential style of bow, reserved almost exclusively for members of the royal family. Obama knew this, because he, and his handlers, are members of an upper-crust, very educated class of people who have spent a lot of free time boning up on foreign cultures and political protocol. Being able to use such knowledge in real-world situations thus becomes the highest flaunting of one’s education and worldliness. Which are now liberal values.
There was a time when obsessive protocol-following was a domain of the right, specifically the old-timey, upper-class aristocratic right, who put great emphasis on upper-class manners and ceremony. But we don’t have much aristocracy today, or even a vibrant “old money” establishment. New money millionaires tend to be pretty liberal, and anyway, a great deal of the elitism that used to be associated solely with wealth has long since been transferred to anyone with sufficient education and political status — which again, tend to be liberal communities.
As educated, upper-class liberals continue to become — and see themselves — as society’s elite establishment, they are much more likely to embrace the pomp and ritual of the old elite. And as conservatism becomes a domain of the lower-classes and uneducated, hostility and resentment towards elite ceremony and protocol grows, as such things are increasingly seen as a symbols of the left.
I’ve seen lots of manifestations of this in my own life. The sorts of people that feel inclined to lecture me on how to properly stand or speak or smile when meeting someone important are usually liberals, as are the people who display the greatest enthusiasm towards dramatically addressing important bigwigs by their correct titles or honorifics. It’s deference, but it’s more about deference to a liberal-dominated establishment than deference to power per se. Calling the Premier “the honorable,” or whatever, is much more a way of saying “look at me, I obey the rules of the game, I am educated enough to follow your protocol, I belong here” than it is any sort of statement about how honorable or dishonorable you actually think the Premier is as a human being.
So, in short, when Obama bows before a king, he’s not really bowing to any monarch or state. He’s bowing to himself, and his own sense of superiority.
