Underlying Message or Miscommunication?

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1920703,00.html

The above article from the Time magazine online touches on the recent speech American President Obama was going to give the primary and secondary school students in America as they start their new school year on 8th September . The article features various views that some people have come up with on President Obama’s speech as well as the actual intended message that the President and the US government had wanted to bring out to the students.

“....state Republican chairman Jim Greer called it an attempt to use "our children to spread liberal propaganda" and "President Obama's socialist ideology." ”

Carla Dean, GOP chairwoman of Florida's Collier County, puts it as “Obama "wants to indoctrinate our kids,"

“...Republican governor and possible 2012 presidential aspirant Tim Pawlenty called the speech "uninvited" and voiced concerns about its "content and motive." ”

As quoted and stated above , many Republicans have been pouring out criticisms on President Obama’s speech ,believing that the speech has political aims. Their claims are not all unsupported as they point to prep materials that have been given to teachers who have been advised to use them as having underlying political meaning that others may not be aware of. Sounds familiar?

It is the cultural studies perspective , where communications are seen to have powerful effect and text are not always what they seem on the surface and this time , it is linked to the social force of socialism. Where the critics point to the government and President Obama trying to exert power over the students to get them to subscribe to what they believe in , in this case socialism.

However , the Democrats and the White House insists that there is no other message(s) underlying in the speech and never intended it to be linked to politics.

So was there really an underlying political message or was it one of Bacon’s four idols?

For me , I feel it is linked to one of Bacon’s four idols - Idols of the cave or otherwise known as personal prejudice. This then caused the miscommunication between the two sides.

In Florida last November , President Obama became he first northern Democrat to take Florida since FDR(Former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt). Florida’s GOP( Grand Old Party , another name for Republicans) , as reported in the article is said to have registered the loudest outcry over President Obama’s speech to be presented on the 8th Septmeber to the students. So they may already have prejudices over the President , government and the Democrats due to Obama winning Florida after so many decades , thus causing the misunderstanding of the President’s message.


Also, the Democrats and the Republicans are rivalling parties, each fighting for more support in America for years. There is a high possibility of the idols of the cave in action here, where a prejudice is already created through the special allegiance to a special theory/discipline. The Republicans would naturally want to put down the Democrats to gain favour with the people at every opportunity .This thus causes the Republican’s understanding of the message to be warped , resulting in a miscommunication as they already have a prejudice against the Democrats , which President Obama belongs to.