Hobbes Is Dead (or at least on life support) . . . and I Feel Fine

It has been said that the election of Barack Obama as the next President may serve to redress the four-century-old stain of racism in America.  While the symbolic poignancy of his ascent no doubt will dispel some demons and open new vistas of opportunity for many, there is another deep-seated ideology of nearly the same historical age that Obama's election may confront, one that perhaps even underlies the overt machinations of race and caste: to wit, fear itself.