Here in the D.C. Area, we're doing our best to exploi-- err, welcome the incoming Obama administration. Yet, even in an unrelenting tidal wave of Obama paraphernelia (buttons, t-shirts, socks, coffee cups, hats, bumper stickers, tote bags, calendars and oil paintings), Ojamas stand out.
Perhaps they speak most directly to American tackiness, our patriotic inclination towards kitsch.
Or, is this (and by this, we could speak of the tidal wave as a whole) an inspired way of reviving a lethargic economy, appealing to our optimism while gently tugging at our wallets?
Is this merely capitalism at its most aggressive and absurd? Tempering it's own cynical motivation with charity contributions?
Or is it something more manipulative than that?
Is this consumerism that directly leeches off our collective voyeurism? Our desire to say that we were there, that we took part, that we were one of the throbbing multitude. And here (in this tote bag, these pajamas, these commemorative kicks with red, white, and blue laces) is proof of that moment and of my presence in it; history muttering of it's grandeur in painted ceramic and faded cotton and suede.
Are Ojamas meant to enhance those stories that, we are told, we shall relay to the next generation -- of a moment when we first felt truly powerful?
Or, could they just be a pair of comfortable, 100% cotton pajamas?
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