This text was presented in January at the 2010 Telos Conference, “From Lifeworld to Biopolitics: Empire in the Age of Obama.”
President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Messianic peace was signified by the person conservatives and liberals labeled “messiah” or “the One.”[1] The Nobel committee symbolically demonstrated deliverance by promises of “change” and “hope.”[2] One week before the award another part of a media eschaton materialized: publicly contemplating a military coup to thwart the “Obama problem.” Appealing to U.S. military leaders in eight, compact bullet points, a well-credentialed journalist wrote: “Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for ‘fundamental change’ toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.”[3] If right-wing American media, through its core of movement conservatism, announced Obama martyrdom, the Nobel Committee announced resurrection.
