That’s not just because it involves two über-Americans discussing America-money, music, race, gender, and John Wayne. Dig into the conversation as it is presented in the book, though, and it comes to feel anything but incidental: Here, essentially, is the blueprint for post–White House Obama-ism. The two voices curated by Renegades-Obama’s and Springsteen’s-hardly need elevation, and the project might seem like just a lark, a retirement perk for the president. Read: ‘American Factory’ grapples with the notion of freedom “We hope to cultivate and curate the talented, inspiring, creative voices who are able to promote greater empathy and understanding between peoples,” read a statement from Barack Obama in 2018. Thus far, its offerings include The Michelle Obama Podcast and the Oscar-winning documentary American Factory its pipeline contains filmed adaptations of books by Michael Lewis and Mohsin Hamid. In 2018, he and Michelle Obama formed Higher Ground, a production company that has signed deals with Netflix and Spotify. The effort is part of Obama’s broader bid to build an infotainment empire. No doubt the $40-a-piece Renegades is really aimed at the dads and granddads of America, just in time for the holiday gift-giving season. The generation that invented cheugy doesn’t seem like the target audience for a heavy book whose cover features the words DREAMS-MYTHS-MUSIC on a black-and-white photo of two chortling Baby Boomers. I f Obama is hoping to encourage young voters, Renegadesis certainly a roundabout way to do it. Since leaving office, Obama has repositioned himself as a cultural influencer-because he shares the national misapprehension that content will save us. That explanation is both helpful and worrying for anyone who’s wondering why perhaps the most popular politician in America is spending his time creating coffee-table books with rock stars. As he tells Springsteen, “Your songs and my speeches or books, or this conversation … I think their purpose is to let that next generation know, ‘You’re on the right track.’” Americans under 35 “overwhelmingly … do not believe in discriminating” or a “grossly unequal” economic system, he says. But what gives him hope now are today’s young people. ![]() In the Renegades conversation, Obama acknowledges that the country has entered a perilous state since Donald Trump took office. Obama’s presidency was followed by the election of an open racist-and an open cynic-whose supporters seem ever more hostile to democracy with each passing week. Today, American optimism is tougher to rouse. Marketed by street-art posters and celebrity sing-alongs, deploying a dynamic oratorical style and an inspiring personal story, the would-be first Black president pitched himself as a transformational figure-and pitched America on the story of progress it could tell itself if it elected him.įrom the January/February 2017 issue: My president was Black In 2008, Obama became the “hope guy” by promising national unity after the turbulent George W. Transcripts of that conversation have now been adapted into a book with the same title that also features reproductions of Obama’s speeches, snatches of Springsteen’s lyrics, and hundreds of photographs. ![]() “Here’s what makes me optimistic … because, you know, I’m the hope guy,” Barack Obama told Bruce Springsteen in a chat recorded last year for their podcast, Renegades: Born in the USA. Thank you for further confirmation that, despite the internet's best efforts to persuade me otherwise, I'm not really alone in feeling this way.A fter hours of searching conversation about America and the human soul, the former president of the United States reiterated his brand identity. It's important to have some sense of self worth, because you are trapped with yourself in every room you will ever enter, so you have to like that guy and goddamn if it isn't tough to do when people are hateful to you simply for having natural thoughts of your own. ![]() Online, there is so much pressure to share the same opinions and slot into the expectations of others, but it's been particularly stressful lately to the point that I have overcome my social media addiction and now rarely post any words online because I feel if I share my opinions I will be persecuted for them as I have in the past. I have struggled with unending depression since I was 14, a decade and a half ago, and things have never felt more bleak than they do right now. Social media in the past few years has caused a deep and profound distress inside myself. The chorus is fantastic, and I've already listened to the song 3x back to back.Īs for the message, I sincerely understand and relate. This is tonally an amazing song, I love the melody.
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