performance

I marvel at how well Barack Obama performs. For quite a few years now, the bar for American performance has been lowered in so many ways.

“Heckuva job, Brownie.”
“12 mpg.”
“Performing non-performing loans.”

Performance once meant to enact or do. It can also mean to act only formally – to “go through the motions” or simulate an action. As a nation if not as a global economy, we’ve spent more than decade flirting with the question: can a successful simulation supplant reality?

I believe the answer has turned out to be “no.”

From Baudrillard to Bush.