inaugurate this!

If you were a student in my social theory class, you would have received an assignment to write a 6-8 page paper on one of three topics related to Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, in which he examines totemism to find the basic precepts that inhere in all religious thought. Since this is no ordinary day, however, the third topic read as follows:

One of the most easily recognized elements of the Obama campaign has been the slogan, “Yes We Can.” Some critics have pointed to the emptiness of the utterance, inasmuch as fails to indicate the object of ‘our’ action, i.e., “Yes, we can do what, exactly?” If this is true, we could contemplate the idea that the slogan’s significance lies elsewhere than its content. Write an essay examining the slogan “Yes We Can” as a totem from Durkheim’s perspective. What are its characteristics? What effects does it have on collectivities and individuals? How does it have these effects? What is the relationship between these effects and society?

I can't wait to see the results...