By Erich Vieth on October 06th, 2009
It’s about me
George Will has been criticizing Barack Obama because Obama is narcissistic–he has been using the words “I” too much in his speeches.
So then blogger Mark Liberman compared Obama’s speeches with those of George W. Bush . . .
It makes me wonder if George Will graduated from the Eastern Missouri Business College.
Niklaus: You have my permission to print yourself a diploma from EMBC if you’d like. http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/04/04/how-to-create-a-diploma-mill-how-to-legally-become-the-president-of-a-fake-college/
One significant difference between Obama and Bush, however, is that in terms of there being something to be self-referential to, Obama exhibits much more substance than Bush. In short, there’s more There there to refer to by I and me than in Bush’s case. Which would lead one to conclude that when Obama says I or me he’s talking about something real, as opposed to…
The use of I, me, my, and mine has absolutely no value as an indicator of hubris. It is all about the context.
Compare
“I am very sorry and extend an apology.”
with
“You are still wrong.”
and decide which of these statements is more arrogant.
It’s a totally useless metric that could only come from the pop pseudo
-psycho-babble and the kind of lame stupidity one should expect from the ill informed purveyors of poppycock when threatend with the loss of their following.